W hen Naomi: in Fashion opens at the V&A on Saturday, visitors will be greeted by Naomi Campbell herself. The exhibition begins with a video montage of a lifesize Campbell catwalking towards the visitor. One minute she is in a Chanel tweed suit, then Versace clubwear, now a Westwood corset.
Her hair is sliced into a bob, or whips the air in a ponytail; now she’s in a fedora, or a turban. Every get up is different, but every frame is only ever really about Naomi. The heart-shaped face with its Bond villain stare as she fronts up to the camera, the swing of her hips and matador snap of her heels as she turns and stalks away.
The V&A has never seen such va-va-voom. Naomi: In Fashion is the first major museum exhibition devoted to a model. Eyebrows have been raised about the canonisation of a fashion model in the ranks of museum-worthy artists.
But it works, because instead of attempting to make too earnest a case, the exhibition is fun and quirky and does not take itself too seriously. View image in fullscreen One of the exhibits at the Naomi: In Fashion show, which opens at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington on Saturday. Photograph: Kevin Percival/Victoria and Albert Museum, London There is a recreation of Campbell’s dressing room, complete with Claridges hotel slippers, her favourite Diptyque candle and a packet of antibacterial wipes.
A mannequin sprawls on the floor of a case in black velvet and 12-inch platform heels, recreating Campbell’s famous 1993 fall o.