“It wasn’t centered on me. It focused on the garments.” A remark by Naomi Campbell, which—when you consider the topic of the V&A’s newest fashion display—doesn’t exactly align. In past times, the South Kensington museum has achieved unprecedented success with retrospectives devoted to iconic designers (consider 2023/2024’s “Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto” and 2019’s “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams”), yet it has never before devoted an exhibit to a single model, one whose rapid teenage triumph—and whose image-making is so legendary—she is simply referenced by her first name.
“Naomi: In Fashion” narrates the incredible 40-year journey of the Streatham-born runway phenomenon, who initially spent her time dancing in music videos for Bob Marley and Culture Club before being discovered in Covent Garden in 1985 at age 15 by scout Beth Boldt. Since her inaugural cover shoot in 1987 (photographed by Patrick Demarchelier; the outfit, lavishly decorated gold and turquoise Chanel Haute Couture crafted by Karl Lagerfeld), Campbell has appeared on the cover of Vogue US and British Vogue multiple times. In August 1988, she became the first Black woman captured for the cover of Vogue France; she signified the supermodel’s towering era on the 1991 cover of Time (accompanied by the headline “Beauty and the Bucks”), and in 1997 became the pioneering Black model to inaugurate a Prada show.
“I can’t fathom unveiling my retrospective anywhere aside from London—this is where I was born, brought up, and discovered—but admittedly, it is somewhat nerve-wracking to perceive it as a homecoming,” Campbell penned in the March 2024 issue of British Vogue.
“It’s tough to envision any other model who justifies their own exclusive museum exhibit,” comments Sonnet Stanfill, senior curator, fashion, at the V&A, during an exhibition preview, where we’re welcomed in the ground-floor gallery by an exuberant montage of Campbell’s runway appearances. Assembled from the supermodel’s own vast fashion collection, personal mementos (including one of her initial Concorde tickets, and her profile pages in Elite’s 1997 model directory book), and photography across decades, Stanfill has crafted a multi-sensory exploration through the milestones of a unique career—one that involved Campbell forging enduring partnerships with designers such as Azzedine Alaïa, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Karl Lagerfeld, photographers from Steven Meisel to Peter Lindbergh, and transitioning after a notable George Michael music video from a supermodel with a bold “S” into a social activist and philanthropist, who connected with Nelson Mandela and co-founded the Black Girls Coalition in 1989, alongside Bethann Hardison and Iman. As Campbell previously shared with Vogue: “Standing before my wardrobe is a humbling instance; vivid memories of past dialogues with legendary designers who ranked among my dearest friends and collaborators return.”