From The Straits Times    |

Linda Evangelista: Money messed me upLinda Evangelista says the amount she was paid as a model “absolutely” messed with her head.

The star was one of the major crop of supermodels who worked during the ‘80s and ‘90s. She famously once said models of her stature didn’t wake up for “less than $10,000 a day” and has now admitted she struggled with the amount she was making at some points – because it was all about her looks.

“Oh initially it did, absolutely,” she said, when Love magazine asked if her daily salary did funny things to her head. “You feel like it’s all real. You’re young. And then eventually you understand.”

The 46-year-old explained she was “astonished” by the amount she earned at times, and remains mystified about why people paid her so much.

In the end she realised that she was just as “replaceable” as the next girl, which stopped things going to her head too much.

“If I look at it the way my agent looked at it, well, it is the fee that is given for my services, my image, and not me as a person,” she explained. “It’s Linda Evangelista. The image is what’s being compensated.”

Linda isn’t comfortable using the term supermodel. She knows it’s how many describe her, but would never put herself in that bracket.

She looked completely unlike her idols when she was growing up and never expected to make it in the fashion world.

“No, I didn’t think I was cover material. Growing up, the pictures I used to put on my wall and cut out of Vogue and dream about, I couldn’t be,” she recalled. “I never categorised myself as ideal or perfect. They were mostly blonde. Button noses. Pale eyes. There was Joan Severance, who is dark-haired, and Janice Dickinson. I used to hang up the old Versace adverts, too.”