Naomi Campbell says she fears fashion industry is going backwards on diversity

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Naomi Campbell has expressed concern that the fashion industry is “sliding back” on diversity.

The 53-year-old supermodel has been a trailblazer within the industry for nearly 4 many years, having been the primary Black mannequin to seem on a number of Vogue covers around the globe.

Campbell made the feedback whereas selling a solo exhibition on her profession on the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

During a briefing forward of the exhibition, as reported by The Times, she paid tribute to the work of Edward Enninful, who made steps to extend inclusivity throughout his tenure as the primary Black editor of British Vogue. She mentioned, nonetheless, that she is “nervous” about the way forward for the industry.

“Will [diversity] remain? That is a question I don’t really want to think about but that is what I’m thinking about, because as I am again looking at the collections, I’m starting to get nervous that we are sliding back,” she mentioned on Wednesday (13 March).

“Why do I stay doing what I do? Because my work is not done. I feel that I have to use my voice and platform to keep at them.”

Campbell has labored to extend diversity within the industry all through her profession. She joined the Black Girls Coalition in 1989 and fronted the 2007 “Black issue” of Vogue Italia.

In 2013, she teamed up with fellow Black fashions to type an advocacy group, Diversity Coalition, to put in writing an open letter to the governing our bodies of worldwide fashion weeks to name out high-profile designers who used both one or zero fashions of color in that season’s reveals, deeming it a “racist act”.

The exhibition, Naomi: In Fashion, will open in June and can chronicle Campbell’s profession of virtually 40 years by 100 curated outfits that she has worn all through her time as a mannequin, each on the runway and in her private life.

Campbell mentioned the exhibition would come with “a lot of personal items that I have never shown to anyone”.

“There is an intimate side to me that a lot of people don’t know and haven’t seen, and don’t know the stories behind the things I’m going to present,” she mentioned. “It has opened up my Pandora’s box.”

The exchibition will delve into her early years in Streatham, south London, the place she grew up, and chronicle her childhood ardour for dancing, earlier than she was approached by a modelling agent whereas procuring on the age of 15.

Naomi: In Fashion may even discover the 2007 incident by which the mannequin was sentenced to 5 days of group service after throwing a cell phone at her maid. The Dolce & Gabbana robe that she wore on her final day of group service might be on show.

This marks the primary time that the South Kensington museum has held an exhibition focusing on the profession of a dwelling fashion mannequin.

Naomi: In Fashion will run from 22 June 2024 to April 6, 2025.