Linda Evangelista was born to Italian parents and was raised in a working class, traditional Catholic family .[1] She is 5'9½" (1.77 m) tall and her natural hair colour is dark brown. She knew she wanted to become a model when she was 12 years old. She got into the modeling industry when she was discovered by a talent agent at the 1978 Miss Teen Niagara Contest. She later moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management there. She then moved to Paris, France to further her career. She has also appeared in music videos with George Michael.

Along with Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, Linda is regarded as one of the few, true supermodels that changed the face of fashion in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Evangelista is a part of the triumvirate of model friends that includes Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington. These three women were affectionately dubbed the "trinity" and are commonly credited as the ones responsible for sparking supermodel mania. The Trinity pushed for better wages for models and for better projects and subsequently Evangelista was called the founder of the supermodel "union".

In the late-80s, she chopped off all her hair into a little-boy style haircut and was promptly cancelled from all the important runway shows that season. This was the first of her many many dramatic hairstyle changes. Within months, she appeared on magazine covers everywhere and many women emulated the hairstyle.

Evangelista is known as The Chameleon, both for her frequent hair changes (style, length and colour) and for the way she could transform in front of a camera. Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld once said of her, "There is not another model in the world as professional as she is." He also said, when comparing models, that Evangelista was the "top of the tops."

When she is not on the catwalk she is an advocate for AIDS and breast cancer awareness. In 1996 she won the VH1 Fashion Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. She has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. In 2005 she was honored as a World Style Icon at the Women's World Awards held in Germany.

Evangelista was married to Elite models executive Gerald Marie from 1987 to 1993. She has also dated actor Kyle MacLachlan (1992-1998), French soccer player Fabien Barthez (1998-2000), Italian oil mogul Ugo Brachetti Peretti (2003-2004), and Formula One driver Paolo Barilla (2005). In 1999, she suffered a miscarriage after being 6 months pregnant by Fabien Barthez. To her delight, she is currently pregnant again by an unnamed New York architect. She has made it known for years throughout her career of her desire to have children

Linda also plays the accordion, and was one of the few female cigar smokers, before she gave up smoking and drinking altogether.