Linda Evangelista (St. Catharines, Canada, 58 years old) became one of the most famous models of all time in the eighties and nineties. Everyone knew his name and his haircut was one of the most copied of those years. He wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000, but he almost quit before he started when he was just 16.
The model, who signed up with a local agency at the age of 12, experienced an episode that almost made her forget about her career in the industry: “It’s ironic that when I was 16, my parents let me go to Japan alone and with a contract . of the model. “They wouldn’t have let me go on the school ski trip alone, but they let me go to Japan,” she explains in the documentary series “The Supermodels,” which premiered on Apple TV+ last Wednesday. “When I went to Japan, the first thing they asked me was for nude photos and wanted to take all my measurements and undress me,” she says, dressed all in black and a turtleneck. “They made a composite [una especie de carta de presentación con varias imágenes de una modelo] and it had my measurements in it and I didn’t want to take my clothes off.” This experience made her forget her future potential as a model: “I was really scared, I should never have gone there alone. “I came home and basically stopped,” he adds. But soon after, she met John Casablancas, one of the founders of the elite agency, at the Miss Teen Niagara pageant, and her life changed.
The Canadian model posed for the Annie Watson campaign in 1984 in one of her first jobs. Photo: getty images
In four approximately hour-long episodes, Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford share their thoughts and memories about the aesthetic that made them world-famous, pushing the boundaries of the fashion industry and becoming global celebrities. about the power they gained during those years and about their legacy or role in the decades that followed, as businesswomen, philanthropists or mothers.
In the documentary series, Evangelista also recounts the abuse she suffered at the hands of her ex-husband Gérald Marie, whom she married when she was 22 and he was 37. Marie was the European director of Elite and was accused of raping several women and sexually abusing another 15 between the 1980s and 1990s. He was married to Evangelista between 1987 and 1993 and in the documentaries she leaves such shocking sentences as “He knew he shouldn’t touch my face or touch anything that makes money.” Also that it wasn’t easy for her to get out of this abusive situation Getting out of the relationship: “It wasn’t just about saying, ‘I want a divorce, goodbye,’ it doesn’t work that way.”
Linda Evangelista walks for Yves Saint Laurent, during the presentation of the spring/summer 1987 ready-to-wear collection. Photo: getty images
While promoting the documentary, the model touched on various parts of her life and revealed to the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago that she had breast cancer and had undergone two surgeries in the last five years. In 2021, she resurfaced after being removed from the front line for five years because, as she revealed at the time, she had a problem with a cosmetic treatment that left her “totally deformed.” Evangelista underwent the CoolSculpting procedure, which enlarged her fat cells. “Today I’m taking a big step toward repairing a harm I’ve suffered that I’ve kept to myself for five years,” she wrote in a lengthy Instagram post at the time.
Since then, Linda has gradually returned to public life, at least partially recovering from the effects of the treatment. A few weeks ago she appeared on the cover of the September issue of Vogue United States and United Kingdom (along with her documentary companions) and now she’s making headlines with her statements in the four episodes of Apple TV+.
Linda Evangelista at the Azzedine Alaïa show, Spring/Summer 1990. Photo: Getty Images
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The documentary that washes the face of the founder of the Elite modeling agency