“Peerless”, “mesmerising”, “an exemplar”, “a tireless perfectionist”, “magical”: the accolades lavished on supermodel Naomi Campbell could easily fill this page and then some. Just how dreary and pointless that would be is hardly worth dwelling on, except that the V&A’s new exhibition is built entirely on such hyperbole, the likes of which would be only marginally less unseemly were it directed at a more deserving figure, like Donatello for example, to whom last year the V&A accorded the relatively lacklustre distinction of being “arguably the greatest sculptor of all time”. The main objection to such grotesque adulation is simply that Campbell is very much alive, and in the usual way of things, people tend only to receive such grovelling acclaim in death, or because they are despots in the mould of Saddam Hussein or Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Naomi in Fashion celebrates the career of one of the most high-profile fashion models ever. As the story goes, south London-born Campbell was a talented dancer and a pupil at the Italia Conti school, appearing in music videos for Culture Club and Bob Marley in the mid-80s, when aged 15, out in Covent Garden, she was spotted by agent Beth Boldt – such were the times that she assumed at first it was her blue-eyed, blonde-haired friends Boldt was interested in. Now one of the most famous Black women in the world, Campbell is lauded as a trailblazer, who after 40 years in the business, is, as this show’s title has it.