Former supermodel Linda Evangelista appears, looking flawless, on the cover of September British Vogue, but the model revealed in a new interview with the magazine that the beautiful photos necessitated makeup artist Pat McGrath taping back her face.
“That’s not my jaw and neck in real life—and I can’t walk around with tape and elastics everywhere,” Evangelista said. “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. All my insecurities are taken care of in these pictures, so I got to do what I love to do.” The tape and elastics McGrath used are covered by hats and scarves.
Evangelista has been brutally honest about her experience with CoolSculpting, a “fat-freezing” technique marketed as a non-invasive alternative to liposuction; Evangelista said the procedure left her “brutally disfigured” and “permanently deformed” after she went for several sessions between 2015 and 2016.
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Evangelista told Vogue: “Those CoolSculpting commercials were on all the time—on CNN, on MSNBC, over and over, and they would ask, ‘Do you like what you see in the mirror?’ They were speaking to me. It was about stubborn fat in areas that wouldn’t budge. It said no downtime, no surgery. I drank the magic potion, and I would because I'm a little vain. So I went for it—and it backfired.’”
Evangelista said she still can’t bear to look at herself in the mirror. “Am I cured mentally? Absolutely not,” she said. “But I’m so grateful for the support I got from my friends and from my industry.”
In September 2021, Evangelista, who had been living as a recluse for several years previously, disclosed her experience for the first time via Instagram and explained that she was pursuing a lawsuit against ZELTIQ Aesthetics and their CoolSculpting technology (the case has since been settled on undisclosed terms).
“I have developed Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia, [which] has not only destroyed my livelihood, it has sent me into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness and the lowest depths of self loathing,” Evangelista wrote.
Instead of smoothing and reducing the parts of her body Evangelista had wanted to improve, after CoolSculpting, her skin began to swell, bulge and harden, the model told People in February.
“If I had known side effects may include losing your livelihood and [that I'd] end up so depressed that [I] hated [myself]… I wouldn’t have taken that risk,” Evangelista told Vogue.
