Her achievements as a model led to her being voted as "The Greatest Supermodel of All Time" by the viewers of the television show Fashion File in 2008.

[16] In 1981, Evangelista took part in the Miss Teen Niagara beauty pageant;[5] while she did not win it, she caught the eye of a representative from Elite Model Management.

She also modelled for various other fashion brands such as Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Gianfranco Ferré, Ralph Lauren, Yves Saint Laurent, Azzedine Alaïa, Oscar de la Renta, Giorgio Armani, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Donna Karan, Jil Sander, Jean Paul Gaultier, Alberta Ferretti, Isaac Mizrahi, Escada, Calvin Klein, Salvatore Ferragamo, Max Mara, Perry Ellis, Chloé, Comme des Garçons, Bill Blass, and Herve Leger.

[25] She has represented a diverse array of other companies and non-fashion brands like Visa, American Express, Pizza Hut, De Beers, and Elizabeth Arden.

[7][33][34][35][36] Starting in 1987, Evangelista began to appear in advertisements and commercials for Revlon's "The Most Unforgettable Women in the World" campaign,[37] which was photographed by Richard Avedon.

She has also been photographed by Peter Lindbergh, Irving Penn, Francesco Scavullo, Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, Gian Paolo Barbieri, Patrick Demarchelier, Paolo Roversi, Norman Parkinson, Arthur Elgort, Gilles Bensimon, Ellen von Unwerth, Sante D'Orazio, and Nick Knight among others.

[10] She also appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show where she served as a judge for an Elite model search competition, and chose Leslie Bibb as the winner, who later became an actress.

[56][57] Also in October 1990, Evangelista stunned the fashion world by having the hairstylist Oribe dye her naturally brown hair platinum blonde.

[54] In 1991, it was rumoured that the fashion house Lanvin paid Evangelista $20,000 to walk in their haute couture show for the spring/summer season, an amount that was considered excessive.

[65] That April, Evangelista waived her runway fee as an act of support for fashion designer Anna Sui's debut collection, and instead accepted clothing as payment.

[74][75][76] The billboards were done in conjunction with Ads Against AIDS, which was a campaign created by the advertising industry to raise awareness about tackling the disease.

[78] It was said that the image, which got dubbed "Beauty and the Seven Beasts" by Richard Johnson in the New York Post,[79] promoted a negative depiction of Italian women.

Evangelista made headlines in 1993 when she travelled to Australia with Claudia Schiffer for a 5-day tour, which included a news conference and a televised fashion show, as part of the grand opening of a department store.

[111][112] In 2006, Evangelista appeared on the cover of the book In Vogue: The Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Fashion Magazine along with model Kristen McMenamy, photographed by Meisel.

[117][118] In May 2008, she made an appearance at the Cannes film festival where she posed for photographers on the red carpet along with fellow beauty Aishwarya Rai.

[131] Also that month, she was on the cover of Vogue Italia for an issue that celebrated the 25th anniversary of Franca Sozzani's tenure as the magazine's editor-in-chief.

[138] In October 2014, it was announced that Evangelista had signed on to be a guest judge on the ninth season of the reality television series Australia's Next Top Model.

[139] Evangelista was chosen by Canadian department store Hudson's Bay as the face of the spring 2015 campaign for its luxury clothing section called The Room.

[144][145] In April 2016, Evangelista appeared on the cover of Zoo Magazine's 50th issue, photographed by singer and friend Bryan Adams.

Premiered on September 20, 2023, the series also features Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, and Christy Turlington and is directed by Roger Ross Williams and Larissa Bills.

[151] Decades after uttering the comment about working for no less than $10,000 a day, the quote continued to be referenced in the media,[152][153][154][155] being mentioned as late as July 2017.

[156] Evangelista herself has said, "I saw a movie, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and there's a line in it where Brad Pitt says he won't get out of bed for less than half a million dollars.

[158] The G Hotel in Galway, Ireland, includes a presidential suite that was named in honour of Evangelista, with its interiors designed by Treacy.

[159][160] The September 1991 issue of Vogue had a photo spread titled "Wild At Heart" that featured Evangelista, photographed by Lindbergh.

Among them are Victoria Beckham, Martha Stewart, models Candice Swanepoel, Kylie Bax, Kendall Jenner and Elsa Benítez, model-turned-actress Angie Harmon, and singer Rihanna.

"[174] Sozzani, the editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, recounted that she would receive letters from readers concerned about "what would happen to the magazine if Linda got sick.

[177] According to Shane Watson of The Evening Standard, "Of all the supermodels, Linda was most responsible for elevating the job into an art form, pushing up the fees, piling on the expectations and generally ensuring that by the end of the Eighties the world of the top model had become as lucrative, glamorous and shrouded in enigma as that of the Hollywood star".

In March 2008, she was chosen as "The Greatest Supermodel of All Time" by a viewer poll for the CBC Television show Fashion File.

Five years previously she had undergone the cosmetic fat removal procedure cryolipolysis, under the brand name CoolSculpting, but that this had done the opposite[clarification needed] with the complication paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH).

Evangelista initiated legal action against CoolSculpting's owner Zeltiq Aesthetics, a subsidiary of Allergan,[200][201] seeking $50 million in damages for emotional distress and lost income.