Linda Evangelista "freaked out" after she traveled solo to Japan for a modeling contract and was asked to pose nude at the age of 16.
Evangelista, now 58, opened up about the beginning of her career in the AppleTV+ documentary, "The Super Models." Evangelista was joined by Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford for the four-part behind-the-scenes look at their lives and careers.
"It’s ironic that my parents let me go to Japan when I was 16 on a modeling contract," Evangelista recalled on the show. "They wouldn’t let me go on the school ski trip, but they let me go to Japan.
"When I got to Japan, first thing they asked me was about nude photographs."
"And they wanted to take all my measurements and take your clothes off. And I'm like, 'I just made a composite.' And it had my measurements on it. And I didn't want to take my clothes off. I kind of freaked out."
The moment led Evangelista to temporarily give up on her future career.
"I never should have went there by myself. I went home," she said. "I sort of gave up, but then my modeling agency insisted I enter the Miss Teen Niagara pageant. I was unsuccessful, but there was a scout in the audience, and they introduced me to John Casablancas.
"And when he met me, he said, 'Wow. I think you look like Joan Severance.' And I almost dropped dead cause I worshiped her. He said, 'Yeah, we'd love to take you on. Maybe you should lose five pounds. And, uh, we'll give it a go.'"
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Casablancas, who founded Elite Model Management, was also Crawford's agent. During the documentary, Crawford recalled being treated like "chattel" during an appearance with Casablancas on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" when she was just 20 years old.
"Did she always have this body?" Winfrey asked Casablancas at the time. "Stand up just a moment. Now this is what I call a body.
"Did she have to go through that training period, or no?" Winfrey asked in the flashback shown during the episode.
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"I was like the chattel. Or a child — be seen and not heard," Crawford recalled.
"When you look at it through today's eyes when Oprah's like, ‘Stand up and show me your body.' Like, show us why you're worthy of being here," Crawford said. "In the moment, I didn't recognize it. Only when I look back at it, and I was, like, ‘Oh, my gosh, that was so not OK, really.’ Especially from Oprah."
Fox News Digital has reached out to a representative for Winfrey.
