Linda Evangelista Got Candid About Photo Retouching And Using Face Tape, A Year After Alleging That A Fat-Freezing Procedure Left Her “Brutally Disfigured”

For context, Linda was diagnosed with paradoxical adipose hyperplasia posttreatment in 2016 — a condition that caused the targeted fat cells to protrude and harden instead of get smaller. She has since settled a lawsuit against Zeltiq Aesthetics for grievous injuries.

“If I had known side effects may include losing your livelihood and you’ll end up so depressed that you hate yourself,” she tearfully told British Vogue, “I wouldn’t have taken that risk.”

Linda said she first became aware of the procedure through seeing adverts “over and over” on television news. “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, and…I drank the magic potion, and I would because I’m a little vain,” she continued.

“Am I cured mentally? Absolutely not,” she continued, noting her attempts to correct the side effects with liposuction, compression garments, and even stopping eating. Even now, Linda says, she cannot look at herself in the mirror or have anyone touch her.

Indeed, Linda is pretty much entirely covered in the Vogue spread. “You’re not going to see me in a swimsuit, that’s for sure. It’s going to be difficult to find jobs with things protruding from me — without retouching, or squeezing into things, or taping things or compressing or tricking,” she explained. In the Vogue photos, her face, jaw, and neck are subsequently pulled back with tape and elastics. “I can’t walk around with tape and elastics everywhere [in real life],” she said.

“You know what? I’m trying to love myself as I am, but for the photos…,” she continued. “I always think we’re here to create fantasies. We’re creating dreams. I think it’s allowed. Also, all my insecurities are taken care of in these pictures, so I got to do what I love to do.”