THE CHIC LIST: She’s a supermodel great, but who is the real Naomi Campbell?
‘Her muscle structure is like that of a racehorse.’ So said Naomi Campbell’s mentor, the late couturier Azzedine Alaïa.
This is one of several striking insights from Naomi in Fashion, a cleverly curated and stylishly presented new exhibition now on at London’s V&A Museum until April, which explores the supermodel’s remarkable career after being discovered aged just 15.
‘I want [visitors] to see the workmanship and the creatives I got to work with, and to understand me as a person more,’ says 54-year-old Campbell.
Linen co-ord, WNU, bag, Dior, and Sandals, Toteme
A giant screen flashing her modelling moments and iconic catwalk strut kicks off the exhibition. For me, the most interesting parts are the photographs of her as an angelic schoolgirl who loved theatre and dance and at home with her mother Valerie in the 1970s, before, one random day in Covent Garden, she was scouted by a model agent.
She looks so innocent and happy but, as photographer Jamie Morgan voices in the exhibition, ‘she must have had nerves of steel to overcome the elitism and racism’ then rampant in the industry.
A testing journey that perhaps created the ‘fierce’ woman she’s often described as, even by her friends. ‘It was a new world that I was not familiar with,’ she says. ‘I felt I had to be apprehensive and aloof and cautious just until I could get my footing and feel comfortable.’
By 17, she’d graced the covers of Elle and Vogue and was travelling the world on assignments. Although she had battles to fight, she got lucky, too, and met designers Yves Saint Laurent and Alaïa, who took her under their wing and helped elevate her career to glittering heights.
A screen of famous talking heads including Usher, Janet Jackson, Neneh Cherry, Carla Bruni and Kate Moss all confirm stories of her greatness. But Campbell also reminds us she is not perfect – thank heavens!
In fact, there’s a section dedicated to the community service she did after throwing a phone at an employee’s head and also her quote in W magazine from 2007: ‘Some people can handle a drink or a line of coke, but I’ve finally come to realise that, for me, it’s all or nothing – and it has to be nothing. And my life has changed since.’
So did I leave the exhibition feeling I knew her better? Professionally, yes. But personally, no. I’d have liked to learn more about her private life, her family, relationships, all those important things that make a person other than a stellar career. But these are the aspects that she still remains aloof about.
Bag, £275, luluguinness.com
To dive for
Conjuring up idyllic exotic shorelines, this shell bag from Lulu Guinness with detachable gold chain is certainly eye-catching. Style with easy-breezy summer dresses.
How to sashay like a catwalk queen
Still strutting her stuff after almost 40 years in the business, Campbell – left, at the Dolce & Gabbana show in February – reveals her catwalk tips:
1 Keep your shoulders back, chin up, head straight and eyes level at all times.
2 Move with the music, synchronise your steps with the tempo for a fluid hypnotic stride and a subtle sway of the hips. Let your arms swing naturally.
3 Command the runway and as you approach the end, pause, focus your gaze into the camera and strike your signature pose, then turn and go back down the runway.
