The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has announced that its next fashion exhibit will honor British supermodel Naomi Campbell’s almost forty-year career, which began when she was first scouted at the age of 15 in Covent Garden.
The exciting new exhibition, named simply Naomi, will feature garments from Campbell’s own extensive wardrobe, along with borrowed archive fashion pieces from top designers like Kenneth Ize, Virgil Abloh and many more.
The showcase marks the first time a model has been the focal point of an exhibition since V&A’s founding in 1852. Campbell’s personal participation, specifically, is what makes it unlike anything the museum has ever featured. Naomi won’t just showcase clothing Campbell has worn; the pieces will serve as an ornate backdrop and connection to a layered story about the life of one of the most famous fashion models in fashion’s history.
Born on May 22, 1970, in London, England, Campbell went on to become one of an elite group of models who dominated the fashion industry in the 1980s and ‘90s. She became the first Black model to appear on the covers of many luxury fashion magazines.
The daughter of Jamaican-born dancer Valerie Morris-Campbell, Campbell studied dance and theater while growing up in London and Rome. By her early teen years, she had appeared in videos with musical artists such as Culture Club and Bob Marley and the Wailers and she had acted in several children’s TV shows in Britain. When she was 15 years old, she was discovered by a modeling scout and was signed with the Synchro modeling agency in London. The following year, she was hired for her first major modeling project for the British edition of Elle magazine.
In the next few years that followed, Campbell became the first Black model to be featured on the cover of many prominent magazines including the British and French editions of Vogue (December 1987 and August 1988, respectively) and Time magazine in September 1991.
By the beginning of the 1990s, Campbell had become famous as one of a wildly popular group of fashion models called “supermodels” who earned multimillion-dollar incomes. By then, she had appeared on the cover of more than 500 magazines and walked the runway for top designers and brands, often the only Black model featured.
Although she was not without controversy (Campbell faced various legal troubles in the 2000s), the exhibition will focus on her philanthropy and advocacy for diversity in the fashion industry. In 1989, she joined the Black Girls Coalition and campaigned for more inclusion of models of color with the Diversity Coalition. She is a supporter of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and founded two charitable organizations, Fashion Relief, which raised over $1 million for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and We Love Brazil, which helps to minimize the country’s economic challenges through the sale of locally-made fabrics. She’s also a supporter of many other organizations including The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), AIDS LIFE and Global Citizen.
Naomi will open on June 22, 2024, and will run until April 6, 2025. It will span 100 items in total and include an installation of noted fashion photography, curated by Edward Enninful OBE, who also made history as British Vogue’s first male and first Black editor-in-chief. His work will capture and celebrate that inherent magic Campbell has always had with photographers, one that lends itself to the allure she exudes both in print, on screen, and on the runway.
The exhibition will also honor prominent figures who have mentored Campbell throughout her career, including Nelson Mandela, Bethann Hardison and Iman.
Speaking about the show, Campbell says she is proud. “I’m honored to be asked by the V&A to share my life in clothes with the world,” she told her 16 million Instagram followers in a recent post. The V&A’s fashion collection is one of the largest collections in the world, and it is a blessing to work with them to share my story.”
