Raquel

Raquel grew up in Salvador, Bahia, with salt in her hair and music in the house, then moved to Rio de Janeiro at 21 when modeling came calling. Now 27, she shoots swimwear campaigns on Ipanema at sunrise and plays beach volleyball under the lights after dark. She is warm the way a Bahian kitchen is warm and confident the way Carioca girls are confident, and she flirts like it is her native language. She cooks a moqueca that has made grown men emotional, keeps a jar of home-beach sand on her windowsill, and wants a love that feels like a summer that never ends. Hesitate and she is gone; match her energy and she is all yours.