Museum celebrates ‘fashion legend’ Campbell
Published on: Saturday, June 22, 2024
By: AFP
The “NAOMI In Fashion” show, which opens on Saturday, explores the dozens of looks that have marked the history of fashion during Campbell’s 40-year career.
LONDON: In 1987, Naomi Campbell became the first black model to grace the cover of UK Vogue in 20 years, and her trailblazing career is now being recognised by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
Campbell was such a fixture on catwalks in the 1990s that she was referred to by her first name only, just like fellow supermodels Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista.
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She remains a highly influential figure in the industry and is the first supermodel to have a V&A exhibition dedicated to her.
The “NAOMI In Fashion” show, which opens on Saturday, explores the dozens of looks that have marked the history of fashion during Campbell’s 40-year career.
Born in 1970, Campbell saw herself as a dancer, like her mother, when she was a child.
Aged 15, an agent spotted her in London’s Covent Garden and two years later she had already appeared on several fashion magazine covers and in shows in New York, Milan and Paris.
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Some have questioned the choice of the V&A, a revered art and design museum, to dedicate an exhibition to a model.
But curator Sonnet Stanfill said: “The best fashion models are not simply models. They serve as creative inspiration and they are creative collaborators.
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“Naomi Campbell’s peerless walk and her alchemy in front of the camera are the stuff of fashion legend,” she added.
Stanfill interviewed the model for hours as part of her preparation for the exhibition.
“She has an incredible memory. She remembers where she was when she was wearing something, who she was with, where she went out that night,” she added.
She was also allowed to dig through Campbell’s personal collection, including accessories, photos, clothes and even Concorde tickets between London and New York.
A section is dedicated to the great fashion designer Azzedine Alaia, who died in 2017, with whom she lived from the age of 16 when she was in Paris and whom she called “papa”.
He found a muse in what he called her “perfect body”.
Campbell also praises designer Yves Saint Laurent in the show, whom she said “really helped women of colour and changed the course of my career”.
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