Supermodel Linda Evangelista's Most Iconic Career Photos

A Star Is Born

Growing up near Niagara Falls in Canada, Evangelista dreamed of becoming a model and taped magazine pages of iconic '70s faces like Joan Severance and Janice Dickinson to her walls.

"I loved fashion so much," she told PEOPLE.

In 1977, a newspaper ad for a local modeling school caught her eye. That eventually led to the Miss Teen Niagara Pageant in 1981. She didn't win, but a scout from the prestigious Elite agency was in the audience. Evangelista landed her first job three years later, in an ad for hairstylist Jean Louis David.

"He cut my hair and photographed me," she recalled. "The cherry on top was that I got paid. I couldn't believe my big fortune."

The '80s Baby

Evangelista's career quickly skyrocketed, and in the mid '80s she found herself on the Paris Fashion Week circuit, seen here in bold hues and prints at the Yves Saint Laurent show in 1985.

"People told my mom, 'She's so tall, she should be a model,' " Evangelista shared.

The Model as Muse

Early on in her career, Evangelista formed close relationships with the industry's top designers, including Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld (here backstage at one of Chanel's fashion shows in the early '90s).

"Karl really adored Linda," André Leon Talley told PEOPLE. "He made sure she got very special looks."

Chanel Crew

Schiffer, Lagerfeld, Turlington, Evangelista and Kristen McMenamy looked like a fashion fairytale at the Chanel Fashion Show during Paris Fashion Week in the 1990s.

Riding the Industry Wave

Before long Evangelista was a runway favorite and became known as a chameleon. One season, long blonde hair. The next, short and red. Then a brown pixie. (That cut, in 1988, became known as "The Linda.")

"She could transfer herself into the personality that the particular designer or couturier wanted for that season," said Talley.

Team Player

Evangelista said she welcomed the opportunity to change up her look for different jobs. "I agree with tattoos and piercings and hair color. I love when people express themselves," Evangelista (here in a 1991 Chanel ad with Turlington) told PEOPLE.

It Girl

"She wanted it," Talley told PEOPLE of Evangelista's mark on the modeling world. "She wanted it like any great actress wanted to be Katharine Hepburn or Bette Davis. She was this constant professional. She always showed up with a smile, stood for fittings. And she just, she just made the designers feel so comfortable with her about the way she would express their clothes on her body."

Here, the model stepping out in New York City in 1990.

Top Models

Evangelista with Campbell and Turlington (at a gala in 1989) infamously said in 1990, "We don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day." These days, she has clarified: "I was realizing my dreams. But I shouldn't have been out there saying those silly things that may have hurt people."

Signature Strut

Evangelista modeled a bandage dress at the Azzedine Alaïa spring show in Paris in 1989.

The Original Super Squad

Evangelista, Crawford, Campbell and Turlington (seen here at the iconic Versace autumn/winter Fashion Show in Milan in 1991) hit runways across the globe together, forming a special bond.

Crawford and Turlington once opened up to PEOPLE about their friend and mentor. Crawford said Evangelista helped her navigate Paris shows: "She used to drive us around in her tiny red car she'd named Petunia." Turlington remembered an Easter shoot with Evangelista: "Linda and I were raised Catholic. She advocated for us to leave to go to church; I probably wouldn't have done that on my own."

Versace, Versace, Versace

Gianni Versace surrounded by Evangelista, Turlington, Schiffer and Carla Bruni at a show in Paris in 1991.

In September 2017, in a flashback to the '90s supermodel era, Crawford, Schiffer, Helena Christensen and Campbell suddenly reunited on the Versace runway. Evangelista was noticeably absent, retreating from the spotlight as she endured physical and emotional pain in the aftermath of her 2015 cosmetic surgery nightmare.

Hair Chameleon

The late great celebrity hairstylist Oribe Canales helped Evangelista prep for a show at the Louvre museum in Paris in the '90s.

Red-y for Anything

Evangelista's bold (and ever-changing) hairstyles led to a $5 million contract with Clairol. Here she commanded the runway at Prada's 1992 Milan fashion show.

The Musician and the Model

"I didn't want to do the 'Freedom' video. George wore me down," she said of collaborating with her close friend George Michael, adding that walking the Versace runway as the iconic song played in 1991 was a career highlight.

Here Michael and Evangelista are photographed together on his "Too Funky" video shoot circa 1992 in Paris.

Music Video Vixens

Evangelista on set with Michael and a bevy of beauties for the "Too Funky" video shoot in Paris in 1992.

Strike a Pose

Evangelista wore an Emilio Pucci tunic with matching purse, lycra leggings and headscarf paired with Christian Lacroix earrings in a May 1990 fashion editorial for Vogue.

Cover Queen

Evangelista has appeared on the cover of more than 700 magazines, including numerous issues of Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. Here, she fronted Harper's Bazaar September 1992 issue photographed by famed photographer Patrick Demarchelier.

In Vogue

The supermodel wore a plunging Bottega Veneta dress on the August 2006 cover of Vogue shot by industry powerhouse Steven Klein.

"The joy and privilege of working with her," Vogue editor in Chief Anna Wintour told PEOPLE, "was that Linda was as vital and collaborative as any photographer or editor to creating memorable images. It showed every time she was in front of a camera or walked the runway. Linda really does stand as one of the greatest — if not the greatest — models of all time."

Dior Darling

Evangelista and her platinum pixie commanded the catwalk during the Dior show at Paris Fashion Week in 1991.

Couture Dream

"One of the things I admired about Linda [seen here at the Dior Haute Couture show in Paris in 1991] was her ability to transform herself," her peer and close pal Crawford once told PEOPLE.

New York Minute

Evangelista sported yet another hairstyle — a chic bob — for the Donna Karan show at New York Fashion Week 1993.

Blue Crush

Evangelista was back on the Versace Haute-Couture runway, wearing a glittering blue sequin gown at the label's show in 1994.

Mugler Muse

After designer Thierry Mugler's death in 2022, Evangelista paid tribute to the late industry icon by sharing a photo of herself on one of his Paris runways in 1995.

Met Gala Moment

One of Evangelista's last last public appearances was the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala in 2015, the same year she began CoolSculpting treatments. She wore a red Moschino gown featuring an oversize bow to the event, the color red as an ode to the gala's theme, "China: Through the Looking Glass." Moschino's Creative Director Jeremy Scott cast Evangelista in two back-to-back campaigns for the brand, the first in 2014 and a second fragrance ad in 2015.

Reclaiming Her Self-Worth

After the 2015 Met Gala, Evangelista largely stayed out of the spotlight, and on Sept. 23, 2021, she explained why in an emotional and vulnerable Instagram post.

The supermodel revealed that she underwent a CoolSculpting fat-reduction procedure five years ago that she says left her "permanently deformed" and "unrecognizable."

One year later, she opened up exclusively to PEOPLE about the emotional and physical anguish she endured since retreating from the spotlight.

"I loved being up on the catwalk. Now I dread running into someone I know," she told PEOPLE.

In a lawsuit filed last September, she alleged that CoolSculpting — popular, FDA-cleared "fat-freezing" procedure that's been promoted as a noninvasive alternative to liposuction — left her "permanently deformed" and "brutally disfigured" from the rare side effect paradoxical adipose hyperplasia, which affects less than 1 percent of CoolSculpting patients. According to her suit, she had been unable to work since undergoing treatments in 2015 and 2016, and she sued CoolSculpting's parent company, Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc., for $50 million in damages. (CoolSculpting denied liability and said Evangelista knew the risks.)

"I hope I can shed myself of some of the shame and help other people who are in the same situation as me," she told PEOPLE. "That's my goal."