Former supermodel Linda Evangelista made a triumphant return to the runway for Fendi on Friday, after revealing that a cosmetic procedure left her “brutally disfigured”.
Evangelista, 57, took part in Fendi’s New York Fashion Week show, held at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom, which paid homage to its classic Baguette bag 25 years after it was first released.
Walking alongside supermodels including Bella Hadid, Evangelista sported a blue duvet-style coat and silver sequinned Baguette bag for the occasion.
Fendi unveiled a surprise collaboration with Marc Jacobs on the night, with a small capsule collection centred on the bag style.
Fendi also collaborated with Tiffany & Co to celebrate the milestone anniversary, reimagining the bag in the jewellery house’s famed robin-egg blue hue. Sarah Jessica Parker, whose Sex and the City character Carrie Bradshaw helped catapult the Baguette style to cult level, also created a version which was unveiled on the night.
Kim Kardashian, Winnie Harlow, Lori Harvey and Jessica Parker were among the famous faces sitting front row for the event, as well as US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
In September last year, Evangelista revealed she had been left “disfigured” after undergoing CoolSculpting, a localised fat freezing treatment, on her neck and chin.
"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," she said.
She said the procedure “did the opposite of what it promised”.
“It increased, not decreased, my fat cells and left me permanently deformed even after undergoing two painful, unsuccessful corrective surgeries,” she wrote on Instagram.
She revealed the treatment left her with paradoxical adipose hyperplasia, a side effect she claims she was not made aware of before undergoing the treatment.
In July, she settled a lawsuit against CoolSculpting's parent company, Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc. Details of the settlement remain undisclosed, though she initially sued for $50 million in damages. She alleged she was unable to work after undergoing the sessions between August 2015 and February 2016.
Evangelista, who hails from Canada, was one of the most successful supermodels of the late 1980s and 1990s, and was part of campaigns for brands such as Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta and Giorgio Armani.
