article on la linda:
'Why I get out of bed now...'(Filed: 22/09/2005)
At 40, Linda Evangelista - one of the original supermodels - is still at the top of her profession. But, she tells Lesley Thomas, that's not her main concern
Practically every half-decent looking female who has ever posed for a photograph gets to call herself a supermodel these days. We forget that, 15 years ago, the Supers Club had fewer members and almost as much wealth and influence as the G8. They were part of that elite celebrity clique whose members are known only by their first names. There was Cindy, Naomi, Christy, Tatiana (most people have forgotten her) and Linda.
Linda Evangelista
'Designers and photographers still want to work with me and I'm grateful for that'
Even Claudia and Kate were not part of the original line-up. Linda - Linda Evangelista, that is - became a sort of union representative for this avaricious little lot when she famously decreed their minimum wage to be $10,000 a day.
Evangelista can't stand the way this quote has - and will - follow her around for the rest of her life. She is sorry now that she ever said it, blaming youthful arrogance. "I said that a long time ago and I would hope that today I am a different person," she says. The older, wiser supermodel knows full well that brandishing her wealth and good fortune is not what will keep her in demand.
"Now I get out of bed for a much better reason," she says. "I'm part of a team that raises millions of dollars and raises awareness of HIV and Aids all over the world."
Evangelista's current big project is as an ambassador for the make-up giant Mac. She is promoting the company's Viva Glam lipstick, the entire sales revenue of which goes to the company's global Aids fund. Every celebrity has a pet charity but Evangelista's efforts are not to be sniffed at. More than a decade ago, she said she liked using Mac's Spice lipliner. Now it's one of the world's bestsellers, and every cosmetics company has its own version of the nude-coloured pencil.
She's returning a favour, too. When Canadian-born Evangelista was a teenage model, the Toronto-based company used to give her free supplies. "I couldn't afford much make-up then. I'm really proud of Mac for doing something about Aids. They've raised $50 million so far, which you've got to be impressed by.
"I lost one of my first bookers to Aids back in the Eighties, when I didn't even know what the disease was, and since then, I've known a lot of people who have been affected."
Evangelista is thrilled that she is still earning her living in an industry which dumps people on the scrapheap at 24. "I'm 40 and I'm very busy," she says. "Designers and photographers still want to work with me and I'm grateful for that. I don't know how long I'll carry on - as long as they'll have me."
The fashion industry worships Evangelista because she is one of the few models who genuinely gets excited about clothes - and there are few signs that she is going out of fashion. "I don't get cast for every job and I understand that. But, you know, I've done Italian Vogue recently and it's just as exciting now as it always was."
Evangelista opening London Fashion Week
Evangelista opening London Fashion Week
Currently, London Fashion Week is awash with gossip and speculation about Kate Moss and fashion's love affair with Class A drugs. At a party given by Evangelista and Mac on Sunday night, traces of cocaine were reputed to have been found in the lavatories. Evangelista refuses to discuss the subject. There is only one drug she is interested in talking about: clothes. Today she's wearing her favourite Notify jeans and a cropped, fitted Giles Deacon jacket. (Giles is the only designer she got on the catwalk for this week.)
The sleeves are voluminous and made of the softest velvet. She invites me to inspect. "Look at these sleeves, they just go on and on," she sighs, ecstatically. "Come on, I mean, get into it."
She admits she's an "addict". She has a wardrobe stuffed with Chanel, Prada, Balenciaga and Manolo Blahnik, and not all of it has been given to her. "I love, love, love fashion so much. That's why I became a model in the first place. I didn't even know that I actually qualified, apart from the fact that I was tall. I still love clothes and I still love this job."
Evangelista wasn't an overnight success, which may explain the reverence she shows for her job. She moved to New York as a teenager and was one of hundreds of run-of-the-mill models earning a modest income before her big break. Photographer Peter Lindenberg persuaded her to cut off her long, wavy hair. The risky boyish crop became her look, and suddenly Concorde became her main mode of transport.
Since then she has appeared on countless magazine covers and catwalks, resolutely refusing any work that isn't modelling. Cindy has made a fortune from exercise videos; Christy sells expensive yoga mats and Naomi has tried everything from acting to singing and writing novels, but Evangelista is almost defiant in keeping her CV minimalist. She appeared in a film once but it was called Catwalk and she played herself. "I love being a model. I have never wanted to act. I didn't go into this so I could sell burgers or whatever."
She is an icon among the little pups that populate her business: but even that is not the secret of her success or her longevity. Evangelista has always seemed a woman's woman and even in an era where sex sells, female-friendliness is a powerful marketing weapon. Her famous, green-eyed gaze makes you believe there is a lot going on upstairs. Buying something that she advertises always seems a wise decision. She has a credibility that other models lack; Ken Livingstone posed with her at a London Fashion Week party - he wouldn't look so good next to Caprice.
Evangelista on the catwalk for Dior by John Galliano
Evangelista on the catwalk for Dior by John Galliano
Evangelista is stunning, but not in the strong, Amazonian way she appears in photos. She is willowy and her face is tiny and fine-featured. At the moment she has long blonde hair, which is a little disappointing for her fans. For most of her career, it's been bobbed or cropped. Her voice is a surprise, too: it's high pitched, Valley-girly and sing-song.
While many models adopt a stage age, or pretend their beauty comes naturally, she wants her female fans to know it takes a lot of effort to keep the Linda show on the road. When I ask what she does to keep in shape she almost shouts: "I do everything!" and she means everything.
At 40, no matter what the genetic advantage, looking like Linda is a full-time job. She admits to being "Botoxed". She worries about whether she looks her best in photos. When the Telegraph photographer has finished taking her picture, she relieves him of his camera and tells him very pointedly which one she likes. Her teeth have been whitened and her skin looks as though it's been professionally polished. She is wearing a hell of a lot of foundation.
"I eat superhealthy and I'm superfit. I dabble in every type of fitness. I have a trainer and I go to the gym. I do yoga as well." She regularly goes back to Canada where she can indulge in a new-found love of outdoor sports including abseiling and cross-country running. "I'm getting a lot out of exercising in nature and being outside."
She no longer lives the hectic life she did in the Nineties. She doesn't need to take every job or to worry whether every job is her last. She lives in a large flat in New York, but gets to see her Ontario-based family regularly.
Evangelista doesn't like to talk about her private life. She's had a string of fairly disastrous, high-profile relationships. In 1987, she married Gerald Marie, her boss at the Elite model agency in Paris. With her strict Roman Catholic Italian background, she said marriage was for ever and that she wanted six children. The couple split five years later.
Soon afterwards, she fell in love with the actor Kyle MacLachlan. They were engaged, but she broke it off after reports of commitment issues on his part. Next came Fabien Barthez, the French international footballer. She gave up modelling, became pregnant, but miscarried after six months. "I would like to have children," she says, now. "I will have children," she adds.
The gossip is that she has become close to a shipping magnate whom she met at Elton John's place this year and invited along to fashion week. For now, she is planning a trip to India with Mac to see some of the results of their efforts. "The proceeds from one lipstick can feed a whole family for a month. Isn't that amazing?"
She starts to reel off a few facts and figures about the global Aids epidemic and then stops herself. "You know what? My part in this is to do the thing I really know I can do well - and that's to sell lipstick."
source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
linda and miss when true supermodels existed
