Linda Evangelista
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Linda Evangelista in August 2004
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| Birthplace | St. Catharines, Ontario |
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| Hair | Naturally Dark Brown |
| Eyes | Blue-Green |
| Birthdate | May 10, 1965 |
| Measurements | 88 cm (35 in) - 63 cm (25 in) - 88 cm (35 in) |
| Height | 177 cm (5 ft 9½ in) |
| Weight | 55 kg (121 lbs) |
| Dress size | 36-38 (EU); 6 (US) |
Linda Evangelista (born May 10, 1965 in Ireland, Ontario) is a Canadian supermodel.
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[edit] Early life
Linda was born to Italian parents and was raised in a working-class, traditional Catholic family. [1] She is 5'9½" (1.77 m) tall and her natural hair colour is dark brown. 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.
[edit] Career Highlights
Evangelista later moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management there. She then moved to Paris, France 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. Evangelista is a part of the triumvirate of model friends that includes Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington. These three women were affectionately dubbed "The Trinity" and are commonly credited as the ones 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".
In the late 1980s, she cutoff all her hair into 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.
[edit] Hairstyles
Evangelista is known as "The Chameleon", both for her frequent hair changes (style, length and colour) and for the way she could transform in front of a camera. The timeline of her haistyles:
- until 1990 Long hair
- 1991 short brown
- 1991 platinum blond
- 1992 red
- 1992 short dark brown
- 1993 short brown with side bang
- 1994 mid-length blond
- 1995 mid-length peroxide blond
- 1996 mid-length brown
[edit] 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 1992, she appeared in George Michael's video Freedom '90
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.
[edit] 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).
In 1999, Evangelista suffered a miscarriage after being 6 months pregnant by Barthez. To her delight, on October 11, 2006, she gave birth to son, Augustin James. [2] The father is an unnamed New York architect. She has made it known for years throughout her career of her desire to have children. [3] 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 to using Botox, but said she stopped during her pregnancy. [4]
Linda also plays the accordion, and was a cigar smoker before she gave up smoking and drinking altogether.
[edit] Famous quotations
- "Nobody dresses well anymore. It's all too casual and too little effort. Except for Singapore Airlines. I love that uniform."
- "We have this expression, Christy and I: 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.
- About the above quote (Linda in Vogue, Sept. 2001): "I feel like those words are going to be engraved on my tombstone. It was brought up every single time I did an interview. I apologized for it; I acknowledged it; I said it was true; I said it was a joke. Do I regret it? I used to regret. Not anymore. I don't regret anything anymore. Would I hope that I would never say something like that ever again? Yes. Am I capable of saying something like that again? I hope not."
- MORE about the above quote: "I don't know what to say about that comment any more. I thought it would go away, but it hasn't. I saw a movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and there's a line in it where Brad Pitt says he won't get out of bed for less than half a million dollars. That's my line! Only now it's a half a million and a man saying it!"
- Inteviewer: "You're a bit of a chameleon. What's your favourite look?" Linda E: "The current one is always the best!"
- "We don't do Vogue. We are Vogue."
[edit] External links
- Linda Evangelista at the Internet Movie Database
- Linda Evangelista in the Fashion Model Directory
- Levangelista.net - Linda Evangelista fan site
