Linda Evangelista back on Vogue cover after being 'deformed' by procedure
In the photos, tape and elastic were used to pull back her face, jaw and neck, hiding the problems caused when a fat-freezing treatment "backfired".
She said: "That's not my jaw and neck in real life - and I can't walk around with tape and elastics everywhere."
She told the magazine she was "trying to love myself as I am".
"But for the photos," she added. "Look, for photos I always think we're here to create fantasies. We're creating dreams. I think it's allowed. Also, all my insecurities are taken care of in these pictures, so I got to do what I love to do."It's almost a year since the Canadian supermodel, one of the best-known faces on catwalks and magazine covers in the 1990s and 2000s, said she had disappeared from the spotlight because she had been "brutally disfigured" by the non-surgical fat reduction procedure.
She said the CoolSculpting treatment - a brand name for cryolipolysis, which uses cold temperatures to reduce fat deposits - went wrong when a rare side-effect increased, instead of decreasing, fat cells.
Now, she has told British Vogue: "If I had known side-effects may include losing your livelihood and you'll end up so depressed that you hate yourself... I wouldn't have taken that risk."