Linda's big break came when she participated in the Miss Teen Niagara Contest at age 15. In the audience that night was a modelling scout from Elite Model Management. She didn't win, but entering the contest ultimately led to her successful modelling career. Although discovered by a modelling scout from Elite at that pageant, her rise to the top of supermodel stardom was not an easy one. In fact during the three years following the pageant, she did small jobs of no great consequence for making her into a superstar. Then she moved to New York where she was represented by Elite. However even then, young perky blond types were the top earners in America. So it was at that point that she finally moved to Paris where she would make her first real steps to becoming a bigger than living legend.
In France Linda got her first cover of the Paris edition of Vogue magazine. From there she would seize upon every worthy occasion and would waste no time in making up for lost time. A slew of high profile jobs came her way. She impressed photographers, clients and couturiers with her enthusiasm for the business and with her uncanny work ethic. Karl Lagrerfeld even once said of her, "There is not another model in the world as professional as she is." He also said referred to her as “top of the tops”.
In addition to her direct beauty crowned by her facial structure and luminous blue eyes, Linda earned her “chameleon” name with a little stunt that nearly backfired. In 1989 photographer Peter Lindberg recommended that Linda cut her hair. If not, he warned that the two of them could not work together anymore. She abided by Lindberg’s advice and sought the services of hair stylist Julian D’Ys who gave her the famous short boyish look. She also cried as her hair was being cut so short, a first for her. At that time, models simply did not have short hair. The new look surprised her agents at Elite as did it surprise many clients who had booked her. And as a result of the haircut she was cancelled from a slew of high profile fashion shows. However in true supermodel nature, Linda pulled off the first quadruple-threat stunt scoring simultaneously the covers of the American, French, British and Italian editions of Vogue in the same month. Never had such a feat been accomplished before. And when other models started emulating Linda’s short cropped look, she began experimenting more than ever before with expressions and hair colour, even dying her hair 17 times in 4 years. She allowed herself to be morphed and transformed. At the photographer’s whim, she could be boyish, sexy, innocent, punk, etc. and all at the drop of a hat.
