Barbara Palvin (born 8 October 1993) is a Hungarian model. She first appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2016. In 2019, she became a Victoria’s Secret Angel. She is also an Armani Beauty ambassador.
Palvin was born on 8 October 1993 and raised in Budapest, and often traveled to the countryside to visit her grandmother and great-grandmother. When she was 13, she was discovered on the streets of Budapest by a modeling scout while walking with her mother. She shot her first editorial in 2006 for Spur Magazine and subsequently moved to Asia where she maintained a steady stream of bookings. Since then, Palvin has been on the cover of L’Officiel (Paris, Russia, Turkey, Thailand, Singapore), Vogue (Portugal), Marie Claire (Italy, Hungary), Glamour Hungary, Elle (Britain, Italy, Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Sweden, Serbia, Hungary), Allure, Harper’s Bazaar and Jealouse Magazine. Palvin has appeared in campaigns for Armani Exchange, H&M, Victoria’s Secret, and Pull & Bear. In February 2012, she became an ambassador for L’Oréal Paris. In 2016, Palvin was revealed to be a part of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Rookie Class. She also became the new face of Armani’s signature scent “Acqua di Gioia”. Palvin is the face of Amazon Fashion and appeared on Express and Chaos advertising campaigns.
Her runway debut was for Prada during Milan Fashion Week in February 2010. Palvin has also walked for Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, Nina Ricci, Emanuel Ungaro, Christopher Kane, Julien MacDonald, Jeremy Scott, Giles Deacon, Vivienne Westwood, and opened the pre-Fall 2011 Chanel show. In 2012, she walked in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
In 2016, she was ranked 4th in Maxim Hot 100. Tumblr’s 2017 list of most popular models reported Palvin to be the second most popular model on the social media site.
Palvin returned to the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2018. The next year, she became the first Hungarian Victoria’s Secret Angel. Palvin’s curves and non-standard runway measurements have been considered by the media to be the brand’s direction toward “body positivity”.
