Naomi Campbell is used to being first. She was in 1988, when she became the first black model in history to appear on the cover of the prestigious Vogue Paris magazine. “She and she,” she repeated, establishing herself as the best-known color mannequin. … of the world as a member of the select club of ‘top models’ of her generation and receive the Fashion Icon award. In 2021, she opened the door to supermodels by launching her own makeup line. And now she will star in the first exhibition that the Victoria & Albert Museum will dedicate to a catwalk superstar.
From June 22 to April 6, 2025, the London venue will remember the 40-year career of the ‘ebony goddess’ by opening her closet to enjoy a hundred of her most iconic garments. From the blue shoes with impossible platforms designed by Vivienne Westwood with which she literally kissed the floor during a fashion show in 1993, to the Dolce & Gabbana dress that the British model, sentenced in 2007 to scrub the floor of a public building in New York, for attacking his assistant with a mobile phone, he chose to complete his last day of community service.
That day Campbell gave a lot of talk, although in reality he has never stopped doing so. The last time, a few weeks ago, when she appeared at the Cannes Festival dressed in a Chanel jewel dress in which she had paraded 28 years ago, in a sort of tribute to herself and the House, and with which she showed that Her measurements – 86-61-86 – and the endless legs that made her famous remain intact.
Surrogacy mother
The story of the top began to be written when a fashion talent scout discovered her at just 15 years old while walking through Covent Garden, although seven years earlier she had already appeared in a Bob Marley video. And, although more than a decade has passed since her last show in Milan, she will surely still provide room for new chapters: as an activist for the racial struggle of her union and with the pressure of the new generations of models from Instagram that the rules of the game have changed; as a mother of two children through surrogacy; or for the new facet in which he has just launched, that of design, with Hugo Boss with a collection for everyday life inspired by his travels and the love of his children, “the first thing for me,” he says. .
But until we got here there have been quite a few headlines with the Campbell seal, many of them due to her extensive love history, which includes everything from the Italian businessman Flavio Briatore and the bassist of the Irish group U2, Adam Clayton, to the Spanish dancer Joaquín Cortes and the Russian millionaire Vladislav Doroni, who gave him a mansion on the outskirts of Moscow designed by the architect Zaha Hadid.
Naomi monopolized all the flashes at the Paris and Milan shows and starred on covers in the highest-rated magazines – up to 25 international ones in ELLE. And that without the top, whom Nelson Mandela affectionately called “my ‘little granddaughter'”, stopped showing her most supportive side, battling against the racism that has accompanied fashion for centuries, as an activist in the fight against AIDS and as founder of Fashion for Relief, a charity that has raised millions of dollars to help victims of natural disasters and other humanitarian issues.
These have not been the only fronts on which the London model has had to fight. The hardest thing for her has been facing her own demons, the excesses with drugs and alcohol – she has never admitted her addictions but was photographed leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting -, and her strong temperament, fruit, excuse, of the “resentment” she feels towards her father who abandoned her when she was a child, and who has often made her lose her temper throughout her career.
Figure and a lot of genius
Behind the list of scandals there are all kinds of reasons hidden. For love, he starred in one of the last with the Russian tycoon Vladislav Doroni, his partner for five years, who after the breakup was seen in an affectionate attitude with Luo Zilin. Out of spite, Naomi attacked the young woman and did not stop until she ruined her career as a model. Previously, in 2011, the Afro-British woman had been summoned to testify by the Hague court in the case against former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. It was the actress Mia Farrow who implicated her in the process, stating that she had received ‘blood diamonds’ from the cruel war criminal. She did not deny it, although she specified that those jewels had been donated to the NelsonMandela Foundation.
Prominent activist against racism in fashion, she has just debuted as a designer with Hugo Boss
What a Toronto court did not overlook was the attack that Georgina Galanis suffered when the businesswoman and actress also threw a phone at her head and was about to throw her out of a moving car. She cared little about paying the compensation imposed on her. the judge, because the supermodel got involved again with another assistant, Amanda Brack, whom he slapped and smashed a Blackberry.
In 2008, for becoming angry during a British Airways flight, Naomi was handcuffed and removed from the plane by the Police, and can no longer fly with the company. The reason? The insults that the model unleashed against an agent at London’s Heathrow airport because her suitcase had been lost. Others had worse luck, like the Italian actress Yvonne Sciò, who was punched and left bleeding just because she was wearing the same dress. Figure, yes, and too much genius.
