Linda Evangelista stars in first fashion campaign since revealing fat-freezing complaints
Model Linda Evangelista shared a photo over the weekend from her first fashion campaign since revealing her fat-freezing complaints in September last year.
Posed in front of a powder blue background, the legendary model is seen wearing a gray sweater, blush pink gloves, pink-rimmed sunglasses, and a pile of matching pink hats. With one hand, she holds a silver and black Fendi baguette purse and a matching clutch.
"On September 9 2022 @Fendi will host a special fashion show in New York City to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the #FendiBaguette, designed by @silviaventurinifendi, and two years since @mrkimjones joined the Maison as Artistic Director of Couture and Womenswear. #Fendi," Evangelista captioned the photo, which she posted on Saturday.
She also said she was "so grateful" to work with the team of artistic and creative directors associated with the upcoming show.
At the time of publication, the post had received more than 38,000 likes and thousands of comments. Many commenters were quick to cheer the model's foray back into fashion, leaving behind encouragement and congratulations on her comeback.
"This is so brilliant! You and the all-star team together again," Allure Magazine founding editor Linda Wells wrote in a comment.
Editorial hairstylist Jimmy Paul also chimed in, writing, "Internet broken," followed by clapping hands and heart emojis.
Fans have seen and heard very little from Evangelista in the past few years. In September, the 57-year-old supermodel finally broke that relative silence, discussing her experience with Zeltiq's CoolSculpting procedure, which she said left her "brutally disfigured" and prompted her to mostly withdraw from public life.
"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," Evangelista wrote in a statement posted on Instagram at that time.
"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.'"
Evangelista sued Zeltiq Aesthetics, the maker of CoolSculpting, for $50 million, alleging that she was not properly warned that the procedure could cause Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia, that her procedure caused PAH, which led to subsequent corrective surgeries, disfigurement, pain and suffering, severe emotional distress and that she sustained economic losses as it rendered her "unemployable."
The case is ongoing.
CoolSculpting is a Food and Drug Administration-cleared cosmetic procedure that has been performed more than 8 million times, according to the company's website. It is marketed as a non-surgical way to target fat cells, freezing them so that they eventually break down; in FDA clearance documents, the company states that the CoolSculpting System "may also be used to minimize pain and thermal injury during laser and dermatological treatmentand act as a local anesthetic for procedures that induce minor local discomfort."
In February, Evangelista unveiled her first set of photos with People several months after her fat-freezing issues arose.
She told the publication that the procedure allegedly caused her to develop PAH which is "a rare adverse effect in which patients develop painless, firm and well-demarcated tissue masses in the treatment areas approximately 3-6 months following cryolipolysis," according to research available from the National Library of Medicine.
Allergan Aesthetics, the company that owns CoolSculpting, previously said in a statement that it "does not comment on ongoing litigation," adding that "CoolSculpting has been well studied with more than 100 scientific publications and more than 11 million treatments performed worldwide."
In a December court filing, the company claimed Evangelista had been warned of the procedure's risks beforehand, asking the court to toss out the case.
Allergan Aesthetics acknowledges on its website that PAH is a potential side effect of the procedure, but calls such side effects "rare."
ABC News has contacted Allergen Aesthetics and CoolSculpting for comment.
