Photograph of Linda Evangelista.
Linda Evangelista

Overview

Linda Evangelista (born May 10, 1965) is a Canadian supermodel. She uttered the quote "We don’t ‘vogue’; we are vogue".

Early life

Evangelista was born to Italian parents and was raised in a working-class, traditional Catholic family in St. Catharines, Ontario.  She knew she wanted to become a model when she was 12 years old. Evangelista got into the modeling industry when she was discovered by a talent agent at the 1978 Miss Teen Niagara Contest.

Career highlights

Evangelista later moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management there. She then moved to Paris, to further her career. She also appeared in music videos with George Michael.

Along with Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, Linda is regarded as one of the few, true supermodels that changed the face of fashion in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The triumvirate of model friends that comprises Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington was affectionately dubbed "The Trinity" and is commonly credited as responsible for sparking supermodel mania. The Trinity pushed for better wages for models and for better projects and subsequently Evangelista was called the founder of the supermodel "union".

Evangelista uttered the quote, "We don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day" (often misquoted as: "We don't get out of bed for less than..." or "I don't get out of bed for less than...") Spoken in Vogue (1990) to Jonathan Van Meyer, talking about money and how she and a few other models were calling the shots and changing the game.

In the late 1980s, she cut all her hair off to brandish a little-boy style haircut and was promptly cancelled from all the important runway shows that season. This was the first of her many, many dramatic hairstyle changes. Within months, she appeared on magazine covers everywhere and many women emulated the hairstyle.

Hairstyles

Evangelista is known as "The Chameleon", both for her frequent hair changes (style, length and colour) and for the way she can transform herself in front of a camera. The time line of her hairstyles:

*until 1988 long medium brown hair *1988 THE famous cut short brown *1989 barber shop crop *1991 platinum blond *1992 red *1992 dark brown asymmetrical cut with long bangs and razored sides and back *1993 Dutch boy bob *1994 mid-length blond *1995 mid-length peroxide blond *1995 mod cut dark brown *1996 mid-length brown

Miscellaneous

*Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld once said of her, "There is not another model in the world as professional as she is." He also said, when comparing models, that Evangelista was the "top of the tops".

*In 1990 and 1992, she appeared in George Michael's music video Freedom '90 and "Too Funky".

*In 1996 she won the VH1 Fashion Awards Lifetime Achievement Award.

*In 2005 she was honored as a World Style Icon at the Women's World Awards held in Germany.

*When she is not on the catwalk she is an advocate for AIDS and breast cancer awareness. She has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto.

*In 2005 New York-based AID for AIDS honored Linda with its annual HERO Award for her commitment in helping to eradicate the disease throughout the world.

Personal life

Evangelista was married to Elite executive Gerald Marie from 1987 to 1993. She has also dated actor Kyle MacLachlan (1992–1998), French soccer player Fabien Barthez (1998–2000), Italian oil mogul Ugo Brachetti Peretti (2003–2004), and Formula One driver Paolo Barilla (2005).

Throughout her career, Evangelista has expressed her desire to have children.  In 1999, she suffered a miscarriage after six months of pregnancy (the father was Barthez).

To her delight, on October 11, 2006, she gave birth to a boy, Augustin James. The father is an unnamed New York architect. While pregnant, Evangelista appeared on the August 2006 issue of Vogue magazine. She was the first non-actress/singer model to appear on Vogue in over a year. In the issue, Evangelista said she was "pro-cosmetic-procedure" and admitted the use of Botox, but said she had stopped during her pregnancy. 

She also plays the accordion, and was a cigar smoker before she gave up smoking and drinking altogether.

References

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That biography says:

...Doherty is reported to have said "It's like living with a fucking stalker." Moss had also changed the locks to the gates allowing access into her house. She was due to model on the catwalk for John Galliano with Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Lily Cole and Gisele Bundchen but was too distraught with her break-up to participate...

This biography says:

...Along with Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, Linda is regarded as one of the few, true supermodels that changed the face of fashion in the late 1980s and early 1990s...

That biography says:

...She is widely respected in the fashion industry as one of the friendliest and most professional models in the business. In 1988, Christy along with Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Elle MacPherson, Claudia Schiffer, Stephanie Seymour and Tatjana Patitz became known as the first supermodels...

This biography says:

Evangelista later moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management there. She then moved to Paris, to further her career. She also appeared in music videos with George Michael....

That biography says:

...As if to prove the song's sentiment, George refused to appear in the video, which was directed by David Fincher, and instead recruited a number of supermodels (including Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz and Cindy Crawford) to mouth the words. It also featured the destruction of various symbols of George's past, including the famous guitar, jukebox, and leather jacket of the Faith era...

This biography says:

*Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld once said of her, "There is not another model in the world as professional as she is." He also said, when comparing models, that Evangelista was the "top of the tops"...

This biography says:

Evangelista was married to Elite executive Gerald Marie from 1987 to 1993. She has also dated actor Kyle MacLachlan (1992–1998), French soccer player Fabien Barthez (1998–2000), Italian oil mogul Ugo Brachetti Peretti (2003–2004), and Formula One driver Paolo Barilla (2005)...

This biography says:

...Along with Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, Linda is regarded as one of the few, true supermodels that changed the face of fashion in the late 1980s and early 1990s...

This biography says:

...She has also dated actor Kyle MacLachlan (1992–1998), French soccer player Fabien Barthez (1998–2000), Italian oil mogul Ugo Brachetti Peretti (2003–2004), and Formula One driver Paolo Barilla (2005)....

This biography says:

...Along with Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, Linda is regarded as one of the few, true supermodels that changed the face of fashion in the late 1980s and early 1990s...

That biography says:

...She famously starred in George Michael's music video Freedom! '90, where she lip-synched to his song along with fellow supermodels Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz. In 1992, Campbell appeared in Madonna's music video for Erotica, which featured filmed footage from photoshoots for the book Sex...

This biography says:

Evangelista was married to Elite executive Gerald Marie from 1987 to 1993. She has also dated actor Kyle MacLachlan (1992–1998), French soccer player Fabien Barthez (1998–2000), Italian oil mogul Ugo Brachetti Peretti (2003–2004), and Formula One driver Paolo Barilla (2005)...

That biography says:

Banks has appeared in several music videos including Michael Jackson's "Black or White",Tina Turner's "Love Thing", and George Michael's "Too Funky" (with fellow supermodel Linda Evangelista). In 2004, she recorded her first single, "Shake Ya Body", which had a music video featuring the America's Next Top Model, Cycle 2 contestants.(Music Video) The video's world premiere was aired on UPN, but the single was a failure for Banks...

This biography says:

...Along with Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, Linda is regarded as one of the few, true supermodels that changed the face of fashion in the late 1980s and early 1990s...

That biography says:

...Benítez was born in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, and she got her modeling start after winning an international model search, held in Costa Rica in 1995. With Linda Evangelista as one of her childhood idols, Benítez decided to follow her dream of modeling. Modeling opportunities opened up for Benítez soon after, first in Mexico, where she started out her career, and then in the United States and Europe...

That biography says:

...The only other models to have singularly graced the cover of US Vogue in between those two issues have been Linda Evangelista and Liya Kebede....

That biography says:

...On July 1st 2007 she made a triumphant return to the catwalk at the Dior Autumn/Winter 07/08 Couture Collection in Paris, modelling alongside fellow legends Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Helena Christensen, Amber Valletta, Shalom Harlow and Stella Tennant.

That biography says:

* ADC (ROY) Parades with Naomi Campbell 2000 * JAG Parades with Linda Evangelista (Melb fashion fest 1999) * CHARLIE BROWN Parades with Helena Christensen (Melb fashion fest 1998) * DAVID JONES - Parades * MYER MELBOURNE - Parades * DIAMARAU (BOSS) - Fashion Week Parades * THE AGE television commercial 'Seize the day' 2 years running 1998, 1999 * TELECOM MALAYSIA International television commercial for the 1998 Malaysian Commonwealth Games * WESTCO television commercial Summer Campaign 1999 * LAMOSIL Sporting commercial 2000- Current * CHESTY BONDS TVC 1999