|
It was a haircut that did it for
Linda Evangelista – or rather, several haircuts and, later, various
changes of color. The Canadian model had been modelling for several years,
picking up around $600 per shoot for "mediocre" work until she went for
the chop and parted with her long, light brown hair.
When British Vogue picked up on some shots Arthur Elgort had taken of her,
she went stellar. Years later, after retiring from the modelling scene,
she would make a comeback on the cover of the US edition of the magazine
that first made her famous.
Born on May 10, 1965, into a large Italian-Canadian family in St
Catherines, a small town near Niagara Falls, Linda developed striking good
looks and was first spotted while just a teenager at a local beauty
contest. An early modelling experience almost made her turn her back on
the business, however. While in Japan on a work assignment, she contacted
the Canadian embassy and was flown home after being asked to do nude
photos. Later, nudity was not something Linda minded.
After Linda finished high school, her mother persuaded her to give
modelling a second chance and she signed with the Elite agency in New
York. In 1984, she moved to Paris, but good jobs were slow to come and it
took three years to land her first assignment for Vogue.
After marrying her first husband, model agency boss Gerald Marie in 1987,
Linda started to get higher-calibre work before hitting pay dirt with that
famous haircut. While it was she who uttered the now infamous line about
not getting out of bed for less than $10,000 a day, her fees soon shot up
and in 1990 it was reported that she had earned double that for an
afternoon's work.
But it wasn't really work for Linda. She has always said she loves
modelling – the clothes, the glamorous locations and everything that goes
with it. She has been accused of earnestness, but in what is essentially a
frivolous world, Linda is a consummate professional – she turns up to work
on time and is rarely pictured at show business parties.
When she started out, Linda had no idea just how big a name in fashion she
would become. "I've become bigger than the product," Evangelista said in
an interview in the mid-Nineties. "I never thought it would be like this.
I'm amazed. I was always obsessed with fashion, with the magazines, the
models and the poses. Now, Arab princes want to marry me."
After she divorced Gerald in 1993, Linda moved to the States full-time,
where she met and fell in love with Sex And The City star Kyle MacLachlan.
The couple split after a long engagement, and in 1998, a year after she
had announced her retirement from the modelling scene, Linda met
Manchester United and France goalkeeper Fabien Barthez. She became
pregnant by him in 1999, but had a miscarriage at six months.
No one quite knows if Linda's comeback is merely a fashion moment, or the
renaissance of a truly awesome fashion icon, but it's good to have her
back in front of the cameras, especially as she enjoys her job so much. No
one could have put it better than the eminently quotable model herself
when, aged 30, she came up with another corking one-liner: "I will be
walking the catwalks with a cane if I have to!" |
|
"It was God who made me so
beautiful. If I weren't, then I'd be a teacher."
"I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day."
"I don't diet. I just don't eat as much as I'd like to."
"People think modeling's mindless, that you just stand there and
pose, but it doesn't have to be that way. I like to have a lot of
input. I know how to wear a dress, whether it should be shot with me
standing or sitting."
[In 2005, retracting her statement about not getting out of bed for
less than $10,000 a day.] I can't stand the way this follows me
around. I said it a long time ago, and I hope today I am a different
person. Now I get out of bed for a much better reason. I'm part of a
team that raises millions of dollars and raises awareness of HIV and
AIDS all over the world. |
