Linda Evangelista - model
Linda Evangelista is one of the five original supermodels. The daughter of Italian immigrants in Canada was born on May 10, 1965 in St. Catharines, near Niagara Falls on the borders of Lake Ontario. Young Linda was raised by traditional Roman Catholic values in a working class family. Her father worked at General Motors.
Already at the age of ten, Linda Evangelista decided to become a model. Three years later she was discovered by a scout at a Miss Teen Niagara contest, although Linda did not manage to win. Until her eighteenth she modelled for the Judy Welch Agency before moving to the more select bureau Elite.
Another three years went by before Linda made her world-wide breakthrough when she was signed by fashion magazine Vogue. Typically, this happened after a change of style in which she cut her hair. Since then, her perfect face with her stunning blue-greenish eyes showed up on practically every fashion and style magazines' front page around the globe.
During this early career, Linda moved from Ontario to New York, while she also lived in Paris for a while. At Elite and certainly with Vogue, she gained her reputation that earned her the title supermodel. She is generally considered one of the "original supermodels", together with Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington. In the early nineties she formed The Trinity, an elite group of supermodels with her poker friends Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell.
Apart from catwalk and modelling work, she appeared in numerous advertisement campaigns for the world's eminent companies, including American Express, Bloomingdale's, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Gianni Versace, Pizza Hut, Visa, and Yves Saint Laurent. Evangelista is model and spokesperson for women's fashion corporation Kenar. She did chief fashion shows for Christian Dior, Chanel, Gianni Versace, John Galliano, and Jean-Paul Gaultier. Currently she is a happy housewife.
Linda Evangelista is famous for her different haircuts. Her natural hair colour being dark brown, she has had practically every hair colour possible. In a period of four years, she reportedly dyed her hair 17 times, each time a different colour. But blonde, red or brown, she is in any case known for the short, boyish hairdo.
Privately, Linda Evangelista has had romantic spells with other celebrities like Kyle McLachlan (Twin Peaks), Gerald Marie (former head of Elite Paris), and Fabien Barthez (Manchester United goalkeeper). Her first love was Gerald Marie's friend Andre Rau. The fact that her grandmother suffered from breast cancer made her quite active in raising awareness for cancer research. She hosted a charity benefit with Bryan Adams.
Some of her fame among the general public Linda Evangelista thanks to another pop star, George Michael. The model appeared in two of his musical videos, Freedom 90 and Too Sexy. Her Hollywood parts include uncredited roles in Prêt-à-Porter (1994), Unzipped (1995) and The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999).
Other random Linda Evangelista facts:
- She was named one of People Magazine's 50 most Beautiful People in the World in 1990.
- The model is 177cm tall, which is equivalent to 5 feet and 11 inches.
- New York City is her home, where she lives in the same apartment as Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, and Wynona Ryder. She has also apartments in Paris and Ibiza.
- Linda Evangelista once played the accordion on the Jay Leno show. In the David Letterman show, the always-funny host told her he had a coffee table with the same colour as her hair (mahogany).
- Her cousin Vanessa Evangelista is also a model for Elite.
- She stopped smoking after undergoing lung surgery in 1993.
- Some of her famous quotes include: "I don't get out of bed for less then 10,000 a day" and "When I feel low, I don't buy a pair of shoes, I change the colour of my hair!"
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