A catwalk comeback.
After taking time away from the spotlight, Linda Evangelista returned to the runway during New York Fashion Week, closing out the Fendi show.
On Sept. 9, the 57-year-old sashayed her way down the catwalk wearing an elegant Tiffany's blue taffeta gown styled with diamond earrings, silver silk gloves. She also carried the luxury label's iconic Baguette bag, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.
Evangelista strutted her stuff in front of a star-studded front row crowd that included Kim Kardashian and Sarah Jessica Parker—whose Sex and the City character Carrie Bradshaw famously carried several Baguette bags during the series.
She last walked a runway at the Dior Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2008 show in Versailles, France. The recent Fendi show also marks Evangelista's first trip down the catwalk since the supermodel—who rose to fame as part of the fashion scene in the 1990s alongside such stars as Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell—shared that she allegedly experienced a botched result from a non-surgical fat-freezing procedure called cryolipolysis.
"To my followers who have wondered why I have not been working while my peers' careers have been thriving, the reason is that I was brutally disfigured by Zeltiq's CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised," she wrote on Instagram in September 2021. "It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed even after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful, corrective surgeries. I have been left, as the media has described, 'unrecognizable.'"
According to the post, Evangelista developed paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), which has been reported as a side effect of CoolSculpting and involves fat cells growing as opposed to shrinking, according to Healthline.
"PAH 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," she continued. "In the process, I have become a recluse."
That month, she filed a lawsuit against Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc. per People. In response, a CoolSculpting rep told the outlet that the procedure "has been well studied with more than 100 scientific publications and more than 11 million treatments performed worldwide" and said the side-effects "continue to be well-documented in the CoolSculpting information for patients and health care providers."
In July, Evangelista announced on Instagram that she has settled the lawsuit and was "happy to put this matter behind" her,.
That same month, she teased her return to modeling, posting a photo of herself posing in a Fendi campaign adorned with two silver sequin Baguette bags, a pair of sunglasses and three pink satin baseball caps in the shot.
In the post, the model also promoted the upcoming fashion show and expressed that she was "so grateful" for the opportunity to represent the luxury brand.