The story goes that she was "discovered" by happenstance in October 1987 in a Dusseldorf nightclub. Michael Levaton of the Metropolitan modeling agency saw her on the dance floor and immediately approached her with his business card. Talks between Claudia , her mother and Metropolitan were held soon after, but Mrs. Schiffer was uninterested in any modeling career for her daughter until Claudia finished school. Once that goal was accomplished, Claudia was sent to Paris where she was presented to Elle. Elle booked her immediately, and Metropolitan realized they had a star on their hands. Before long she began gracing magazine covers in Europe.

Her next big break came when Karl Lagerfield, Chanel's legendary designer, asked to meet her. He liked what he saw and put her on the runway. From there she started working in the U.S. for Guess! Jeans, and soon found herself on five magazine covers here. She's since been on over 400 covers, and the rest, as they say, is history. In autumn of this year, she switched from Metropolitan to Elite, and she appears on a healthy number of pages -- including the cover, wearing that funky bra -- in the Victoria' s Secret Christmas Catalog.

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