Harsh twist for Linda Evangelista, world’s greatest supermodel

The 56-year-old celebrated supermodel is now fighting for $50m from a company she alleges destroyed her career.

She once made headlines for saying she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.

But fast-forward more than three decades and Linda Evangelista is making headlines for another dollar figure – she’s suing the company behind the CoolSculpting procedure, which promises to freeze fat, for US$50 million ($68 million).

In a Instagram post this week, Evangelista claimed she had been left “brutally disfigured” by the procedure.

The 56-year-old alleges that she developed paradoxical adipose hyperplasia or PAH, a risk she says she wasn’t made aware of before she had the CoolSculpting process.

PAH is caused when the treated area becomes larger rather than smaller in the weeks after the procedure, leaving a “painless, visibly enlarged, firm, well-demarcated mass” under the skin.

As well allegedly suffering with disfigurement that made her unable to work, Evangelista claims she suffered mental anguish from the side effects that made her a recluse.

Linda Evangelista presents a creation by British designer John Galliano for Christian Dior Fall/Winter 2007-08 Haute Couture collection show in Paris. Picture: AFP PHOTO FRANCOIS GUILLOT.

It’s a sad twist for Evangelista, who has long been hailed as one of the greatest fashion models of all time by her peers, who also say they had long suspected there was a reason why she had largely shunned the spotlight since 2015.

Evangelista was born in the Canadian city of St Catherines, close to Niagara Falls, in 1965 to Italian immigrants. She began modelling as teenager and took part in the Miss Teen Niagara pageant where she was scouted by an agent from Elite Model Management.

Surprisingly, Evangelista wasn’t even sure if she wanted to be a model after a traumatic experience in Japan at age 16.

“I was chosen by a Japanese agency to go over to Japan for the summer to work,” she told Interview magazine.

Evangelista was scouted while competing in a beauty pageant. Picture: Ron Galella/WireImage

She quickly became one of the biggest models of the early 1990s.

“My parents were strict Italians who didn’t let me go out past 10 o’clock, and I had to choose between going out Friday or Saturday night and was not allowed to have a boyfriend.

“But they said OK. I got there and it was a catastrophe. They wanted me to take my clothes off and shoot me naked.

“It was a nightmare and I panicked and basically the Canadian Embassy helped me out.”

But in 1984 Evangelista moved to New York City and then onto Paris, where her career went into overdrive with her first magazine cover at age 19.

In 1988 Evangelista – controversially – cut her hair into a pixie cut, a decision that saw her axed from 17 fashion shows, HuffPost reports.

Fashion designer Domenico Dolce, model Linda Evangelista, model Naomi Campbell, and designer Stefano Gabbana walk on the runway after the Dolce & Gabbana Autumn/Winter 2003-2004 collection fashion show. Picture: Giuseppe Cacace/Getty Images.

But the look paid off in the end, with ‘The Linda’ haircut becoming the it style of the late 1980s and Evangelista later claiming it had quadrupled her rate.

Evangelista became one of the most recognisable models of the early 1990s, gracing the cover of more than 700 magazine covers and becoming the muses of fashion labels like Chanel and Versace.

She became known for her diverse look, reportedly dying her hair 17 times in the space of five years, CR Fashion Book reports.

Her career was at its peak when the biggest celebrities in the world were models, with Evangelista considered one third of “The Trinity” alongside Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell.

Kate Moss, Helena Christensen, Karen Mulder and Linda Evangelista (right) with Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld in 1995. Picture: WILLIAM STEVENS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.

But her time modelling wasn’t without controversy – in 1990 she told Vogue magazine: “We have this saying, Christy and I … we don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day.”

The backlash was swift despite Evangelista apologising for the statement, which still follows her around decades later.

The “$10,000 a day” claim was also somewhat true – Evangelista was reportedly paid $20,000 for walking in one fashion show in 1991.

“I feel like those words are going to be engraved on my tombstone. It was brought up every single time I did an interview,” Evangelista said.

“I apologised for it; I acknowledged it; I said it was true; I said it was a joke. Do I regret it? I used to regret.

Evangelista famously once joked she wouldn’t work for less than $10,000 a day. Picture: Pierre GUILLAUD / AFP.

“Not anymore. I don’t regret anything anymore. Would I hope that I would never say something like that ever again? Yes. Am I capable of saying something like that again? I hope not.”

In 1998 Evangelista announced her retirement from modelling.

But she returned to work in the fashion industry three years later and continued to model throughout the 2000s, albeit less frequently than her earlier career.

In 2006 Evangelista gave birth to son Augustin James Evangelista, whose father is billionaire French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault.

To celebrate her pregnancy Evangelista appeared on the cover of Vogue where she discussed getting Botox and said she wasn’t upset by the changes pregnancy had brought to her body.

“I’m not freaked out at all, I embrace it. I believe I’m doing everything to go through this as smoothly as possible. I’m either doing yoga or exercising every day,” she said, according to Today.

She gave birth to son Augustin in 2006. Picture: lindaevangelista/Instagram

She’s kept a low profile for the past five years, revealing why this week in an emotional Instagram post. Picture: lindaevangelista/Instagram

In the last five years Evangelista has made few public appearances – she was a noticeable absence from a catwalk reunion of 1990s supermodels at a Versace show in 2017.

This week we finally found out why – in an emotional Instagram post Evangelista wrote that her PAH had left her struggling not just with physical side effects, but also with mental anguish.

“PAH has not only destroyed my livelihood, it has sent me into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness, and the lowest depths of self-loathing,” she said.

“In the process, I have become a recluse.”

Other supermodels have spoken out in support of Evangelista’s legal action, saying they had suspected there was a reason for the model’s absence.

“I knew in my heart you somehow had been quietly going through something deeply personal and disturbing,” Helena Christensen commented on her post.

“There was a reason she retired from the spotlight, and for a woman known for her brilliance as a physical chameleon and embodiment of elegance, it was a harsh one,” Paulina Porizkova also wrote on Instagram.