Linda Evangelista
Linda Evangelista, August 12, 2004.
Born	(1965-05-10) May 10, 1965 (age 59) St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Years active	1984–1998 (retired), 2001–present
Modeling information
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[1]
Hair color	Blonde
Eye color	Blue-green
Agency	DNA Model Management Models 1 Agency

Linda Evangelista (born May 10, 1965) is a Canadian model. She is one of the most accomplished and influential models of all time^[3][4], and has been featured on over 700 magazine covers. Evangelista is mostly known for being the longtime muse of photographer Steven Meisel, as well as for coining the phrase "We don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day." She holds the record for her multiple appearances on the cover of Vogue Italia, all of which were photographed by Meisel.

Early life

Evangelista was born to Italian parents^[5] who emigrated to Canada. She was raised in a working-class, traditional Roman Catholic family in St. Catharines, Ontario, near Niagara Falls, where she attended Denis Morris Catholic High School.^[6] Her father worked for General Motors, and passed away on January 17th, 2014. Her mother, Marisa, was a bookkeeper.^[7] Evangelista attended a self-improvement school at the age of 12, where she was taught things such as poise and etiquette,^[8] and she was advised to attend a modeling course.

As a teenager, Evangelista began modeling locally in her hometown.^[9] In 1981, she took part in the Miss Teen Niagara beauty pageant. And while she did not win the pageant, her presence caught the eye of a representative from Elite Model Management.^[8]

At the age of 16, she flew to Japan to model there, but an unpleasant experience involving nudity during a modeling assignment made her want to stop modeling altogether.^[10] She returned home to Canada, and two years went by before she decided to try her hand again at modeling.^[11]

Career

1984-1998

Evangelista moved to New York City to sign with Elite, where she met the prominent modeling agent John Casablancas, who compared her likeness to the model Joan Severance.^[12] She then moved to Paris, France where she launched her international high fashion career at the age of 19. Her first major fashion magazine cover was for the November 1984 issue of L'Officiel. Subsequently, she would go on to appear on the covers and in the pages of a variety of international publications including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Elle, W, Marie Claire, Allure, Interview, Time, and i-D.

In 1985, she began working with Karl Lagerfeld, the head designer of the prestigious fashion house Chanel, to whom she would become a muse. Lagerfeld once said of her, “There is not another model in the world as professional as she is.”^[13] Evangelista became one of the first print models to successfully cross over into the realm of runway modeling.^[14] She also became a muse to the late fashion designer Gianni Versace, for whom she first appeared in ad campaigns in 1987. In addition to her work for Versace and Lagerfeld, Evangelista also modeled for various other fashion brands such as Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Gianfranco Ferré, Ralph Lauren, Yves Saint Laurent, Azzedine Alaïa, Oscar de la Renta, Giorgio Armani, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Donna Karan, Jil Sander, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Alberta Ferretti, Isaac Mizrahi, Anna Sui, and Herve Leger.

Starting in 1987, Evangelista appeared in commercials and advertisements for Revlon's "The Most Unforgettable Women in the World" campaign,^[15] which was photographed by the legendary photographer Richard Avedon. It was during this time that Evangelista met Meisel, with whom she forged a friendship, and they began working together on many professional collaborations. She was also photographed by the likes of Peter Lindbergh, Irving Penn, Francesco Scavullo, Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, Patrick Demarchelier, Arthur Elgort, Sante D'Orazio, Bill King, and Nick Knight among others.

It was Lindbergh who, in the Fall of 1988, suggested that she cut her hair short after seeing her try on a short wig for a photoshoot. Consequently, she got a short gamine haircut from the French hairstylist Julien d'Ys.^[16][17] The following day, she was photographed by Lindbergh, which resulted in a now-famous photograph known as "the white shirt picture."^[16] Initially, the haircut was not well received by the fashion industry, and Evangelista was cancelled from 16 fashion shows.^[18] However, by the Spring of 1989, Evangelista's haircut was the look of the season.^[19][17][20] The haircut was referred to as "The Linda", and it inspired the creation of a wig called "The Evangelista".^[8] Even famous women sought to emulate the look. Among them were Demi Moore, who sported the haircut in the 1990 film Ghost,^[21] and Susan Sullivan from the hit tv show Falcon Crest.

Evangelista became known as one of the five supermodels, a group of star models who reached the pinnacle of success during the late 1980s and early 1990s.^[22][23] The supermodels were considered more famous than most actresses and singers of that time.^[24] In addition, Evangelista, along with Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell comprised a triumvirate that was dubbed "The Trinity."^[25][26] They were joined by Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz for the cover of the January 1990 issue of British Vogue, which was photographed by Lindberg with the word "Supermodels" as the heading. Upon seeing the cover, the singer George Michael chose to cast these five models in the music video for his song, "Freedom '90," in which they lipsynched the words to the song. In May of that year, Evangelista was chosen as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" by People.^[8] Also, she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show where she served as a judge for an Elite model search competition, and chose Leslie Bibb as the winner, who later became an actress.

In an interview printed in the October 1990 issue of Vogue, Evangelista said the words, "We don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day."^[27][28] That statement became the most famous quote in modeling history. During the same month, Evangelista stunned the fashion world by dying her naturally-brown hair platinum blonde.^[29][30] Months later, she dyed her hair a shocking shade of bright red.^[31] Throughout most of her modeling career, Evangelista was referred to as the fashion industry's "chameleon" for the way that she constantly reinvented herself with various hairstyles and ever-changing hair colors that inspired hair trends.^{[25][22][32][33]}

In 1991, it was rumored that the fashion house Lanvin paid Evangelista $20,000 to walk in their Haute couture show for the Spring/Summer season, an amount that was considered excessive.^[34] Male model Tyson Beckford mentioned in an interview that Evangelista was instrumental in getting higher rates for models.^[35] In December 1991, Evangelista was profiled in an episode of MTV's House of Style which was filmed in Paris.^[36] In April 1992, she posed with several other top models for the cover of the 100th anniversary issue of Vogue.^[24] She appeared in the music video for George Michael's "Too Funky" song, in which she parodied her modeling persona. Her name was later immortalized in RuPaul's iconic 1992 song, "Supermodel (You Better Work)."

In the mid-1990s, she appeared in two fashion documentaries: 1995's Unzipped, and later in Catwalk. Also in 1995, she landed an endorsement deal with Clairol worth over $5 million.^[37] In addition, she co-hosted the Miss World competition. In 1996, she appeared on the cover of the book 10 Women by Peter Lindbergh. Eventually, she made the choice to retire from modeling in 1998, and settled in St. Tropez, France where she spent the next two years.

2001-present

In the year 2001, Evangelista made a noteworthy return the modeling world, and appeared on the cover of the September issue of Vogue.^[38][39][40] Two years later, she was back on the high fashion runways, walking for Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, and Hermès. Furthermore, she closed Chanel's Fall/Winter Haute couture show wearing a white wedding gown.^[25][41] In 2006, she appeared on the cover of the book In Vogue along with model Kristen McMenamy, photographed by Meisel.^[42] In August of that year, she made the cover of Vogue, becoming the first model to appear on that magazine's cover in more a year.^[43][44] Her final runway appearance was in 2007 for the 60th anniversary of the Christian Dior brand.^[45][46] That year, she signed a multiple-year exclusive contract as the brand ambassador for the cosmetics giant L'Oreal Paris.^[47] In May 2008, she made an appearance at the Cannes film festival where she posed for photographers on the red carpet along with fellow beauty Aishwarya Rai. She was photographed by Meisel for the Prada Fall/Winter 2008 campaign.^[46] She also appeared in the September 2008 issue of Vanity Fair for a feature story on the supermodels titled "A League of Their Own."^[48] In 2010, Evangelista became the new face of Talbots.^[49]

In May 2012, Evangelista attended the Met Gala as the special guest of Miuccia Prada, the creative director of the Prada brand, who was being honored at the gala. Two months later, Evangelista was on the cover of Vogue Italia after a three-year hiatus from the magazine. She was featured in the book Vogue: The Editor's Eye as one fashion's model-muses. In June 2013, she attended the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards show, where she presented fashion journalist Tim Blanks with the Media Award. She later appeared on the cover of Vogue Germany's July 2013 issue, photographed by Lagerfeld,^[50] and on the cover of the 25th Anniversary issue of Vogue Italia. Most recently, she can be seen in the Fall/Winter 2014 ad campaign for the fashion brand Moschino.

She is signed to DNA Model Management in New York City, and Models 1 in London.

Activism and Awards

Evangelista is an activist for HIV/AIDS research as well as for breast cancer awareness. She was one of the icons in MAC's Viva Glam campaign.^[45][51] In 1996, she was the recipient of VH1's Fashion Awards Lifetime Achievement Award^[45] which was presented to her by Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue. In June 2003, she received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto, Canada. In 2005, she was named as a World Style Icon by the Women's World Awards in Leipzig, Germany. In October 2013, she was the host of amfAR's Inaugural Inspiration Gala in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.^[52]

Personal life

In 1987, Evangelista got married to Gerald Marie, who was the head of the Elite modeling agency's Paris office.^[53] They were divorced in 1993.^[54][55] She also dated actor Kyle MacLachlan whom she first met on a photoshoot for Barneys New York in 1992. The couple became engaged in 1995 but broke up in 1998.^[56] Afterwards, she dated French soccer player Fabien Barthez. She became pregnant but miscarried, six months into the pregnancy.^[57][45] Their relationship ended in the year 2000.

On October 11, 2006, Evangelista gave birth to a boy, Augustin James, refusing to name his biological father, sparking rumours.^[54] While pregnant, she appeared on the August 2006 issue of Vogue. In late June 2011, Evangelista filed court papers that revealed her son was fathered by billionaire Frenchman François-Henri Pinault, by then the husband of actress Salma Hayek.^[58][59] After several court appearances aimed at establishing a child-support agreement, on August 1, 2011, Evangelista formally filed for a child support order in Manhattan Family Court, seeking $46,000 in monthly child support from Pinault. It was reported that if granted, this amount "would probably be the largest support order in the history of the family court".^[60][61] A heavily-publicized^[62] child support trial began on May 3, 2012,^[63] and included testimony from both Pinault and Evangelista, with Evangelista's attorney claiming that Pinault had never supported the child.^[64][65] Several days into the trial, on May 7, 2012, Evangelista and Pinault reached an out-of-court settlement.^[66]

Evangelista began dating Hard Rock Café founder Peter Morton in 2006. On June 6th, 2013, the media reported that Evangelista and Morton had broken up.^[67][68]

References

External links

• Linda Evangelista at IMDb
• Linda Evangelista at Fashion Model Directory

Template:Persondata