Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, and businesswoman. Discovered at the age of 15, she established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and the 1990s and was one of six models of her generation declared supermodels by the fashion industry and the international press. Campbell was born in Streatham, South London to Jamaican-born dancer Valerie Morris.
Naomi was the first black model to appear on the cover of “French Vogue” She also appeared in Bob Marley’s music video “Is this love” at the age of 7 and also starred it “Grange Hill”.
In 1987, I got my first British Vogue cover. During the shoot, you didn’t know if it would end up on the cover; they called it a “cover try”, which meant you tried your hardest to make it good… I remember going to the Vogue offices afterwards and finding out I’d made the December cover. I looked at all of those beautiful covers – with girls like Christy and Yasmin – and thought to myself, “Wow, I have one, too.”
The next year I made the June cover of Italian Vogue, shot by Steven Klein. He was very cool and professional, but the shoot was difficult, because the makeup artist hadn’t brought the right foundation for my skin. I don’t know what kind of girl he was expecting, but I wasn’t altogether happy with the final picture, because I didn’t feel it captured my true skin tone. (Afterwards, I always took my own foundation and powder.)
Three months later, I got the cover of French Vogue, which was an even bigger deal. I’d already shot a lot for French Vogue and been told – not in an especially rude way – that a cover wasn’t a possibility. I didn’t realise that there had never been a black model on the cover. In the end, it was shot by Demarchelier in a studio in New York. I didn’t like the cover much, but when the August 1988 issue came out, it made a huge impact: finally, a black model on the cover of French Vogue. I was glad I only found out afterwards that I was making history. Otherwise, I would have felt far too much pressure.”
