Supermodel Linda Evangelista has appeared on her first major magazine cover since a cosmetic procedure left her “brutally disfigured” and “permanently deformed”.
The 57-year-old fashion icon posed for the September issue of British Vogue, the magazine revealed on Friday, as the supermodel slowly makes her way back in front of the camera since a botched surgery “destroyed” her life.
It comes after Evangelista revealed in an interview with People in February she was done hiding after feeling deep shame following a rare reaction to a fat-freezing procedure in 2015.
However, Evangelista told the publication her latest cover photos were far from a “comeback”, revealing a make-up artist used tape and elastics to adjust her scarred face, jaw and neck for the fashion shoot.
“That’s not my jaw and neck in real life – And I can’t walk around with tape and elastics everywhere,” she told Vogue.
“You know what, I’m trying to love myself as I am, but for the photos. Look, for photos, I always think we’re here to create fantasies. We’re creating dreams. I think it’s allowed.”
Tweet from @BritishVogue
Evangelista was pictured with chic hats and scarves as part of Vogue’s fashion shoot. On the cover, she appears in an all-red outfit, wearing a bucket hat on top of a headscarf and a red coat.
She told the publication she still hadn’t recovered from the ordeal, mentally. But posing almost entirely covered allowed her “to do what I love to do” without insecurities.
“Am I cured mentally? Absolutely not. But I’m so grateful for the support I got from my friends and from my industry,” she said.
“You’re not going to see me in a swimsuit, that’s for sure. It’s going to be difficult to find jobs with things protruding from me; without retouching, or squeezing into things, or taping things or compressing or tricking.
“Also, all my insecurities are taken care of in these pictures, so I got to do what I love to do.”
There was plenty of support for Evangelista from some of her closest friends.
“A rose is a rose is a rose,” commented another supermodel, Helena Christensen.
Gwyneth Paltrow said Evangelista’s latest looks were “really great”, while designer Marc Jacobs wrote: “What a fabulous way to wake up this morning!!!! Welcome back dear Linda.”
She first spoke about the tragically botched surgery in September last year, before breaking her silence on the emotional and physical pain earlier in 2022.
“I loved being up on the catwalk. Now I dread running into someone I know,” the model said through tears in February.
“I can’t live like this anymore, in hiding and shame. I just couldn’t live in this pain any longer. I’m willing to finally speak.”
Canadian-born Evangelista was once one of the most photographed people in the world, gracing more than 700 magazine covers and rising to peak fame during the 1990s.
In 1990, she famously declared “We don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day”, of her supermodel crowd.
