by Zsófi Benyi

"We don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day,” said a woman who needs no introduction to
fashion. The iconic 90s super-model, singing Freedom by George Michael, mining down the
Versace catwalk, composing a pop culture moment to change us all forever, is legendary.
Platinum blonde, brunette, baby blue spikes, Chanel motorcycle bride or a Chanel surfer gal
or even playing punk tartan in a Vivienne Westwood hit: she could be anything. Posing
alongside the 90s glamazons for Vouge, marking one of the most iconic magazine-covers of
all times, Linda Evangelista blew off fashion moments of biblical proportions that made the
90s the glamazon-glazed dream we look back at today. This dream is not over yet. I present
you, the one and only Linda Evangelista, back better than ever. “I’m not done!” she tells
Vogue in her comeback special, ruling the covers this September.

What else could the future and the fashion world hold for Linda? Linda was not just a spark
of beauty and personality. She was there to stay for three decades until she became the
victim. Victim of the seemingly perfect world: magazine covers and campaigns, all that has
to do with beauty. She proved beauty culture pressure true. Portrayed as perfection, her looks
paying her bills, her face defining her worth, and her body sometimes objectified as she lived
as one of the most photographed women of the time. Like Snow White taking the glistening
red apple, Linda drank the poison of beauty commercials. She spent eight weeks wrapped up,
days without eating, incisions all over the body, never leaving home. Things need to change,
and Linda spoke up. “Damn! You spent five years in your bedroom, and then this?” replies
Artistic director Kim Jones referring to the new Fendi campaign, once Linda uncovered the
truth. After a cosmetic procedure left her "permanently deformed, with now a campaign and a
cover, is the superstar really ready for a comeback? "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…” For a Vogue cover, she had her jaw and neck taped back with
elastics. "For photos, I always think we’re here to create fantasies. We’re creating dreams."
Linda, the girl we all knew by her first name says to sum up the fashion and beauty
industries. "People don’t know who I am… They’re like, ‘Linda who?" The world could
never forget an icon like You, Linda. Moreover, I believe now more than ever the world
needs someone to shatter fantasies and shed light on realities to show that no matter how hard
it may be: being true to one's self, being authentic, and speaking up are key. As Diana von
Furstenberg once said: "Beauty is perfect in its imperfections, so you just have to go with the
imperfections."