Linda Evangelista, 57, appears in her first campaign since being ‘permanently deformed’ by cosmetic procedure Linda Evangelista is back in front of the camera for the first time since opening up about her CoolSculpting nightmare.

Linda Evangelista, 57, appears in her first campaign since being ‘permanently deformed’ by cosmetic procedure Linda Evangelista is back in front of the camera for the first time since opening up about her CoolSculpting nightmare.

The model took to her Instagram on Saturday to share a photo of herself from the latest Fendi campaign, which is the first she’s done since saying she’d been “permanently deformed” by a cosmetic procedure years ago.

Evangelista, 57, has long been considered one of the most influential supermodels of all time after rising to fame in the 80’s, but in September 2021 she opened up about taking a step out of the spotlight for a couple years after a fat-freezing procedure.

“Today I took a big step towards righting a wrong that I have suffered and have kept to myself for over five years. 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 in an Instagram post alongside the hashtags #TheTruth and #MyStory.

Within her explanation of the procedure gone wrong, Evangelista wrote that CoolSculpting increased her number of fat cells instead of decreasing them and left her “unrecognizable.” She was eventually diagnosed with Paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH) — a rare condition that explained the adverse effect of the CoolSculpting — and even underwent corrective liposuction surgeries that she said were unsuccessful.

While talking to People in Feb. 2022, the model went into further detail about the “bulges” of hardened fat that appeared on her body after seven sessions of CoolSculpting between August 2015 and Feb. 2016. “If I walk without a girdle in a dress, I will have chafing to the point of almost bleeding. Because it’s not like soft fat rubbing, it’s like hard fat rubbing,” she told the magazine. “I don’t recognize myself physically, but I don’t recognize me as a person any longer either.”Still, she promised, “I’m not going to hide anymore.”

Now, months after sharing her story and ridding herself of the shame that she was experiencing, Evangelista is receiving praise for her return to modeling.

“Linda Forever!” one person commented on her latest post. “Still the greatest model of all time,” wrote another.

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