The first things that you notice about model Adriana Karembeu are her stems, which are long enough to make other supermodels rip out their hair extensions. Adriana, who hails from Slovakia and stars in the international Wonderbra campaign, holds court in The Guinness Book of World Records as the model with the longest legs in the world. Take that, Cindy, Christy and Naomi. Turns out Adriana's superlative status in the tome is a result of happenstance. "They were measuring Nadja Auermann's legs because she's tall," Adriana says. "I'm tall, too, so they decided to measure mine. And mine were longer." To be exact, 1.24 meters long, and she's been flaunting them ever since. Adriana lived in Slovakia until she was 20, and though it sounds too trite to be true, she was discovered by a talent scout and invited to Paris to try her hand at modeling. "I didn't speak English, so I didn't understand what the scout was saying. Apparendly, he insisted that I enter a modeling contest. I won, and the prize was a plane ticket to Paris." Before that, Adriana had no aspirations to becoming a model. In fact, she was studying medicine at the University of Prague. After being discovered, she shelved the books. "In Slovakia, we were completely blocked from everything," she says. "We didn't have fashion magazines. Girls didn't think about being models. But I wanted to go to Paris. I asked my father and he said, 'Try it. If you don't like it, you always have a place to return to.'" In Paris, Adriana was floored. "In Slovakia, we were taught that everything in the West is bad. But once I got there, I thought, My God, it's not bad! I remember going to the supermarket and seeing the different kinds of cheeses and meats. I wished my parents could see it." After her first gig, a French catalog shot in the Bahamas, Adriana landed a slew of high-profile modeling jobs in Milan, Paris and New York, including runway shows for Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel. But most fans recognize her as the Wonderbra girl. So, does she sport one in real life? "Of course. If I'm wearing a nice dress and I want great cleavage, I wouldn't wear anything else," she says. Dressing sexy for her husband, French soccer player Christian Karembeu, is an integral part of Adriana's life. When the couple goes out, she wears elegant dresses that are so tight you can see her silhouette. And while she is taller than 6'1", she never forgoes high heels. "He's a bit shorter than me, but with his dreadlocks, we're about the same." At home, she cooks dinner for Christian while wearing lingerie-or less. "I like to make people, including my husband, go, 'Wow.' I enjoy turning heads." Consider ours turned.
See wonderful coverage of Adriana at cyber.playboy.com.
