Naomi Campbell on modelling into her 50s, battling racism and her new museum exhibition
Her name is synonymous with beauty, style and running late.
And when THE Supermodel that is Naomi Campbell arrived for our interview she didn’t disappoint in all three categories.
My crew were told to set up for 1pm for a 2.45pm interview, she entered the ballroom at the Dorchester at 5.45pm.
In the moments before her arrival her team made several visits to inquire if we were ready as she was definitely on her way.
Then suddenly the gilded mirrored double doors swung open and in she sauntered.
Campbell was a little preoccupied on her phone as her attendants in waiting preened, polished and perfected her look but as soon as the camera started rolling she enthused about her groundbreaking exhibition at the V&A entitled NAOMI: In Fashion.
A young Campbell on the runway
Inside the supermodel’s upcoming exhibition
Campbell is launching an exhibition at the V&A Museum reflecting on her career as a supermodel
It’s the first of its kind and explores her 40-year career as a fashion model, her cultural icon status and the fact that four decades on she is still a highly sought-after working model.
Campbell tells me it’s an honour to be the sole subject of the exhibition, that she is totally in awe and feels very blessed.
She follows in the footsteps of David Bowie, Frida Kahlo and Kylie, who have also had solo exhibitions at the London museum.
The 54-year-old’s hope is that through the clothes that she’s worn, the designers she’s collaborated with, the photos that have been taken and the activism she’s displayed, visitors to the exhibition will come to understand her as a person, in her own words.
She says she wants people “to see the workmanship, the creatives that I got to work with after these four decades, and the story, the narrative and to understand me as a person more, coming from me”.
“You know I never normally do that. I’m going to show things that I’ve never shown,” she adds.
Campbell’s new museum exhibition is a journey through her esteemed career as a model
Campbell is known to have worn a number of iconic outfits down the runway
The collection will comprise of pieces taken from different points in her career. It will include around 100 looks from the best of global high fashion including the pair of staggeringly high Vivienne Westwood platform shoes which she famously fell in while walking the catwalk in 1993.
“You know what? God bless her. May she rest in peace. I love Vivienne Westwood. Loved her, loved her, loved her,” Campbell says, remembering the designer behind the iconic shoes.
“She was a woman of integrity and did not suffer fools. And she kept her dignity to the very end in terms of staying true to who she was.
“And I loved her for it. Those were her signature shoes and if you didn’t know how to walk in them, then learn.
“That was a lesson to me, never rest on your laurels Naomi. Just because you can walk in other heels it doesn’t mean you can walk in those.
“I thought I could and I learned the hard way, I couldn’t, and I went down.”
The famous Vivienne Westwood heels that Campbell fell in
The fall, far from blighting her career actually added to her star factor because of the way she handled it, giggling on the floor of the catwalk.
In her time she’s had to negotiate far greater challenges than foot-high heels.
She was the first black woman to appear as a model on the covers of Time and Vogue France and has made it her mission to champion diversity in the fashion industry.
Campbell has openly spoken about racism and the challenges she has faced as a black woman.
“It’s like a way of life because you become conditioned in a way to know you have to deal with it to the point where you could pre-empt and kind of be pro-active to get it out of the way and I found that a lot of things I dealt with that way,” she says.
“I would see it coming so I was going to find a way to go around it, go over it, get through it.
“And that’s what I did.”
Campbell walking a runway in Milan, Italy, in 2012. Pic: AP
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Campbell says that as long as she has anything to do with the fashion business she will stand up for diversity although she believes that recently it has taken a step back.
“We are in a different time where people feel they can come out and just say how they feel whether you like it or not.”
Regarding the Conservative Party donor Frank Hester reportedly saying that Diane Abbott made him want to hate all black women and that she should be shot, Campbell describes it as “disgusting and ignorance at its finest” but not depressing.
“It drives me, it drives me,” she says.
Naomi Campbell spoke to Sky News about her upcoming V&A exhibition
On her longevity in an industry where many of her peers have long since hung up their heels, Campbell says she doesn’t know why she is still gliding down the world’s catwalks, but what she does know is that there was never a strategy.
“I got to be a part of this real big fantasy. Some people think that our industry is just not real, it’s very real and it is a billion-dollar business.”
The exhibition NAOMI: In Fashion runs until 6 April 2025 at the V&A.
UK
Pictured: Boy killed in Gateshead industrial estate fire – 14 children arrested on suspicion of manslaughter
Tributes have been paid to 14-year-old Layton Carr who died in a fire at an industrial estate.
Eleven boys and three girls, aged between 11 and 14 years, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after the incident in Gateshead on Friday. They remain in police custody.
Police were alerted to a fire at Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area
Firefighters raced to Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area shortly after 8pm, putting out the blaze a short time later.
Police then issued an appeal for a missing boy, Layton Carr, who was believed to be in the area at the time.
In a statement, the force said that “sadly, following searches, a body believed to be that of 14-year-old Layton Carr was located deceased inside the building”.
Layton’s next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers, police added.
Layton has been described as a ‘beautiful soul’
A fundraising page on GoFundMe has been set up to help Layton’s mother pay for funeral costs.
Organiser Stephanie Simpson said: “The last thing Georgia needs to stress trying to pay for a funeral for her Boy Any donations will help thank you.”
One tribute in a Facebook post read: “Can’t believe I’m writing this my nephew RIP Layton 💔 forever 14 you’ll be a massive miss, thinking of my sister and 2 beautiful nieces right now.”
Another added: “My boy ❤️ my baby cousin, my Layton. Nothing will ever come close to the pain I feel right now. Forever 14. I’ll miss you sausage.”
A third said: “Rest in peace big lad such a beautiful soul taken far to soon my thoughts are with you Gee stay strong girl hear for u always.”
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Detective Chief Inspector Louise Jenkins, of Northumbria Police, also said: “This is an extremely tragic incident where a boy has sadly lost his life.”
She added that the force’s “thoughts are with Layton’s family as they begin to attempt to process the loss of their loved one”.
They are working to establish “the full circumstances surrounding the incident” and officers will be in the area to “offer reassurance to the public”, she added.
A cordon remains in place at the site while police carry out enquiries.
Sky News can reveal that the government has rowed back on a national compensation scheme for victims of child sexual abuse, despite it being promised under the previous Conservative administration.
Warning – this story contains references to sexual and physical abuse
A National Redress Scheme was one of 20 key recommendations made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), but a Home Office report reveals the government has scrapped it because of the cost.
Marie, who is 71, suffered alleged sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at Greenfield House Convent in St Helens, Merseyside, between 1959 and 1962, and is still fighting for compensation.
Greenfield House Convent, where Marie says she was abused
As soon as she arrived as a six-year-old, Marie says her hair was cut off, her name changed, and she experienced regular beatings from the nuns and students.
She claims a nun instigated the violence, including when Marie was held down so that her legs were “spread-eagled” as she was sexually abused with a coat hanger.
Merseyside Police investigated claims of abuse at the convent, but in 2016, a suspect died before charges could be brought.
Marie has received an apology from the Catholic body that ran the home; she tried to sue them, but her claim was rejected because it was filed too long after the alleged abuse.
Marie, 71, is still fighting for compensation for the abuse she says she suffered as a child
In February, ministers said the law would change for victims of sexual abuse trying to sue institutions for damages, which was a recommendation from the IICSA.
Previously, people had to make a civil claim before they were 21, unless the victim could prove a fair trial could proceed despite the time lapse.
Campaigners argued for the time limit to be removed as, on average, victims wait 26 years to come forward. Changes to the 1980 Limitation Act could lead to more people making claims.
Peter Garsden, President of The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers
Civil cases ‘can take three to five years’
But Peter Garsden, president of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, worries that when it comes to historical abuse where the defendant is dead, institutions will still argue that it is impossible to have a fair trial and will fight to have the case thrown out of court.
Mr Garsden said it takes “between three and five years” for a civil case to get to trial.
He warned that claimants “can end up losing if you go through that process. Whereas the Redress Scheme would be quicker, much more straightforward, and much more likely to give justice to the victims”.
Victim awarded £10 compensation
Jimbo, who was a victim of abuse at St Aidan’s children’s home in Cheshire, took his case to the High Court twice and the Court of Appeal three times, but, after 13 years, all he ended up with was £10 for his bus fare to court.
Despite the Lord Justice of Appeal saying he believed that the abuse had occurred, Jimbo lost his claim because of the time limit for child sexual abuse claims to be made.
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Neither Marie nor Jimbo is likely to benefit from the removal of the time limit for personal injury claims, which is why Mr Garsden is calling on the government to implement a National Redress Scheme for victims of sexual abuse, as recommended by the IICSA.
Hundreds of millions paid to victims
The governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland have set up compensation schemes and paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims.
In 2023, the then Conservative government said a similar scheme would be organised for England and Wales.
But the Home Office admitted in its Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Progress Update that it “is not currently taking forward any further steps on the IICSA proposal for a separate, national financial redress scheme for all survivors of child sexual abuse”.
“In the current fiscal environment, this recommendation is very difficult to take forward,” it added.
For victims, the scheme was the last chance of compensation for a lifetime blighted by abuse.
“The money is about justice and about all the other people who have had to suffer this abuse,” Marie said.
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