Naomi Campbell models in her 50s, fights racism and her new museum exhibit | Arts & Arts News

Naomi Campbell is one of the most iconic supermodels and is still walking runways in her 50s – but the star has an upcoming museum exhibition that she hopes will „show me things I’d never show”.

Her name is synonymous with beauty, style and running late.

And when supermodel it Naomi Campbell He did not disappoint in all three categories when it came to our interview.

My team was told to set up for a 2.45 hour interview at 1pm and he entered the ballroom in Dorchester at 5.45pm.

A few minutes before her arrival, her team visited several times to inquire if we were ready as she was definitely on her way.

Then suddenly the double doors covered with gilded glass opened and she stepped inside.

Campbell paid little attention to her phone as her assistants waited, polished and perfected her look, but once the camera started rolling, she was enthusiastic about her groundbreaking exhibition at the V&A, titled NAOMI: In Fashion.

This is the first time, and her 40-year career as a fashion model, her cultural icon status and four decades of her still being a sought-after working model.

Campbell tells me that it’s an honor to be the sole subject of the exhibition, he’s in complete awe and feels very blessed.

She follows in the footsteps of David Bowie, Frida Kahlo and Kylie, who have had solo exhibitions at the Museum of London.

The 54-year-old hopes that visitors to the exhibition will understand her as a person through the clothes she wears, the designers she collaborates with, the photographs she takes and the dynamism she exudes. Words.

„After these four decades of work, creativity and story, narrative and people need to understand me as a person and see what comes from me,” he says.

„You know I don’t normally do that. I’m going to show things that I would never show,” he adds.

The collection will consist of pieces taken from different points of his career. It includes the top 100 looks from global high fashion, including Vivienne Westwood’s famously dropped platform shoes during her 1993 catwalk walk.

„You know what? God bless her. May she rest in peace. I love Vivienne Westwood. Loved her, loved her, loved her,” Campbell says.

„She was an honest woman and didn’t suffer fools. And she kept her dignity to the end in being true to who she was.

„I loved her for that. Those are her signature shoes, and if you don’t know how to walk in them, learn.

„That was a lesson to me, never rest on your laurels with Naomi. Just because you can walk in other heels doesn’t mean you can walk in them.

„I thought I could. I learned the hard way. I couldn’t. I went down.”

The fallout, far from tarnishing her career, added to her star factor because of the way she dealt with it, laughing on the floor of the catwalk.

In her time she had to negotiate much bigger challenges than her foot-high heels.

She was the first black woman to model on the covers of Time and Vogue France, and has made it her mission to champion diversity in the fashion industry.

Campbell has been outspoken about racism and the challenges she has faced as a black woman.

„It’s like a lifestyle, because I find that to know that you’re conditioned in a way you have to deal with it and be proactive and proactive to get it out of the way. I’ve dealt with a lot of things that way,” he says.

“I’ll see it coming, so I’m going to find a way to get around it, get past it, get past it.

„That’s what I did.”

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Campbell says she’s stood up for diversity as long as she’s had anything to do with the fashion business, though she believes it’s taken a step back lately.

„We’re in a different time where people feel they can come out and say how they feel, whether you like it or not.”

Regarding the Conservative Party donor Frank Hester said Diane Abbott made him hate all black women That she should be shot, Campbell describes it as „disgusting and ignorant at its best,” but not depressed.

„It drives me, it drives me,” he says.

Of her longevity in an industry where many of her peers have long hung up their heels, Campbell says she doesn’t know why she’s still gliding down the world’s catwalks, but what she does know is that there is never a strategy.

„I got to be a part of this really big fantasy. Our industry is not real, it’s very real and some people think it’s a billion dollar business.”

The NAOMI: In Fashion exhibition runs at the V&A until 6 April 2025.