Naomi Campbell is pushing the boundaries of fashion once again. After breaking ground as the first Black model on the covers of Vogue France and Time magazine, she’ll become the first model to land a solo exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum when Naomi: In Fashion opens on June 22.
The museum has had blockbuster shows about Alexander McQueen, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and other designers in recent years, but until now, no show about an individual model.
The exhibition includes more than 100 pieces, including the Vivienne Westwood platforms that brought her crashing to the ground during a 1993 catwalk and the gauzy pink Valentino ensemble she sported at the Met Gala’s 2019 celebration of camp. Also here: the Dolce & Gabbana dress she wore on the last day of her court-ordered community service in 2007, to which she was sentenced after being convicted of hitting her maid with a cellphone.
The exhibition charts her meteoric rise to the top, which started when the 15-year-old Campbell was scouted while shopping at London’s Covent Garden with friends. Before her 18th birthday, she was traveling the globe on catwalks for fashion’s top houses and posing for magazine covers. She became the muse of designer Azzedine Alaïa, whose dresses are heavily featured in the exhibition; he saw her 5-foot, 10-inch frame as the “perfect body".
By the early 1990s, Campbell had one of the most famous faces in the world as one of the “big five” original supermodels alongside Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer.
“It was a different time, a different era,” says Campbell, speaking to Bloomberg from the ballroom of the Dorchester Hotel, three hours late to the interview and dressed in a suit and Chanel pearls. “I don’t feel the same camaraderie with the girls today.” Comparing contemporary models to the supermodels of her day, she says: “I don’t see the same closeness, friendship and sisterly bonds as what we had.”
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Now nearly 40 years into her career, the 54-year-old Campbell says she wants people who see the exhibition to leave feeling like they know the real her a little better. “I’ve put a lot of my personal things into this exhibition, things I’ve never shown and that I saved for myself. It’s a more intimate side, because I feel like people don’t get to see what really goes on behind the scenes.”
The show charts Campbell’s longstanding commitment to activism, for instance. In 1989 she co-founded the Black Girls Coalition, which sought to improve representation for black models in the industry and promote better treatment on runways and in campaigns. The supermodel’s fight for change in the fashion world was noticed not only by industry insiders but also by civil rights pioneers including Nelson Mandela, who named Campbell his honorary granddaughter.
She has been championing diversity since she was a teenager and says efforts towards equality need to go further than empty platitudes. A wholehearted approach to inclusion is the litmus test she uses before taking on new projects.
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“I’m not into ticking the box. You have to show me that you really want to commit to the community,” she says, speaking about how she judges who she’ll collaborate with. “Before you sign any contract or say yes or commit to anything, you have to ask the question, ‘How is it going to be defined? Am I going to be covering the globe completely or is it only in certain areas?’”
Looking to the future, the mother of two says she’s starting a talent agency with Umar Kamani, founder of fast-fashion label Pretty Little Thing and godfather to her son. The first office will open in Dubai. “It’s just a place where everybody goes these days,” she says. “It’s cosmopolitan, it’s global, and it’s giving opportunities to all — every emerging market as well as the markets we all know.” She continues: “You want a place that gives opportunity to all.”
Campbell says that she’s never seen any conflict between her roles as a model and activist, but that she can’t force her peers to advocate for equality the way she has. “Either you speak up, or you don’t."
