Linda Evangelista
photo: Steven Meisel
Chanel's mega-persona Karl Lagerfeld once said of her: "There is not another model in the world as professional as she is."
The daughter of working-class Italian parents, Linda Evangelista was born May 10, 1965, in St. Catharines, Ontario.
By 12 she knew she wanted to model, and at 15, as a contestant in the Miss Teen Niagara pageant, she was discovered by a scout from Elite New York. The next three years were spent doing small modelling jobs close to home before making the jump to New York.
At the time bubbly, blonde, All-American types were getting the work in the Big Apple so Evangelista flew to Paris. That's when things started to click.
By 1989 Evangelista was one of the top models in the world. She had by then worked so many times with Peter Lindbergh - one of the top photographers in the world - he commented there was nothing more the pair could do without Evangelista changing her look. The next time he saw her she had cut her hair short; a move that would catapult her to the realm of "supermodel."
Evangelista became known for her chameleon-like abilities; from her ever-changing hair colour to her dexterity in front of the camera, adaptability set her apart.
She also however, became maligned for uttering modelling's most notorious quote. While at a café with fellow supermodel Christy Turlington, Evangelista jokingly told a reporter, "We don't get out of bed for less than ten thousand dollars a day." The comment, although meant in jest, smacked of arrogance and greed. Evangelista's unfortunate remark may have spelled the beginning of the end of the supermodel era.
Until then there were only five real "supermodels" (Evangelista, Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, and Cindy Crawford). Soon though, a new breed of model started inheriting the most lucrative campaigns. Suddenly unconventional, less refined models were doing major jobs and demanding much less money.
For Evangelista, the bookings became fewer and fewer until in 2001, at the age of 36, she announced a comeback (without ever having retired). Immediately she was cast for runway shows and photographed for Vogue. She switched her London agency from Premier Management to Models 1, and was contracted by British ladieswear shop, Wallis, to help reshape its image.
Evangelista has been married once - a five year relationship with Elite Models' bigwig Gerald Marie that ended in 1992 - and has a son, Augustin James, born in 2006 from another relationship.
In 2003, Evangelista became the first model to receive a place in Canada's Walk of Fame, and is still represented by DNA in New York.
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