London's V&A museum has announced a "first of its kind" exhibition which will explore Campbell's 40-year career in the modelling industry. Photo: dpa
London's Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has announced a "first of its kind” exhibition which will explore the "unequalled” 40-year career of supermodel Naomi Campbell.
Due to open on June 22, 2024, the exhibition simply titled Naomi will "draw upon” the London-born supermodel’s "own extensive wardrobe of haute couture”, as well as "notable ready-to-wear ensembles”, to be featured alongside loans from designer archives, the museum said.
It will be the first exhibition for the V&A focused on a leading supermodel’s career in fashion told through clothes, combined with powerful imagery and with Campbell’s voice and experience in the foreground.
Around 100 looks from her four decades in the industry will be on show, with designs from Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Tunisian designer Azzedine Alaia, Gianni and Donatella Versace, Vivienne Westwood and more to be featured.
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Campbell, 53, has had a long-standing relationship with British brand McQueen – walking in runway shows when original creative director Alexander "Lee" McQueen was alive (including the 2004 Black show revisiting his greatest hits) and recently closing Sarah Burton’s last show as creative director at Paris Fashion Week.
She was a constant presence on the Vivienne Westwood runway, famously taking a tumble during the Autumn/Winter 1993 runway show, when wearing vertiginous purple platform shoes.
As one of the original "supers”, she was known as one of "Gianni’s girls”, in reference to the late designer Gianni Versace.
One of Campbell’s most memorable Versace moments came on the Autumn/Winter 1991 runway, when she walked hand-in-hand with Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista, lip synching to George Michael’s song Freedom!, which they also appeared in the music video for. – dpa
