The V&A gave Naomi Campbell the first exhibition of its kind on her career, tracing her work with designers and photographers, her activism and her cultural reach.
V&A South Kensington held an exhibition on the career of Naomi Campbell from Saturday 22 June 2024 to Sunday 6 April 2025. In August 1988 she became the first black model on the cover of French Vogue.
Campbell was born in 1970 and first appeared on screen at eight, in a Bob Marley video. She was scouted in Covent Garden at 15. She was on the cover of British Elle just before her sixteenth birthday.
British Vogue followed in December 1987. She was later the first black woman to appear as a model on the cover of Time. She was one of six models of her generation the industry named supermodels.
Campbell walked for Gianni Versace, Azzedine Alaïa and Isaac Mizrahi. In 1993 she fell from the platform shoes she wore on Vivienne Westwood’s catwalk, a pair later shown at the V&A.
The museum called the exhibition the first of its kind to explore her career. It told that story through the work of leading designers and photographers, and through her collaborations, her activism and her cultural reach.
The show opened with personal images from Campbell’s own archive.