*Naomi Campbell opens up in the November issue of Vogue about racism in the fashion industry and how she’s mentoring the next generation of Black models.
“Now you understand the strength of my family,” Campbell told the publication while accompanied by her mom and aunts in London. “You understand where I come from.”
The 50-year-old iconic supermodel stuns in a white Dior Haute Couture gown on the Vogue cover. Inside the issue, she slams the British media, calls out her country for not doing more to address racism and shares details about her personal life amid the ongoing COVID pandemic.
“I was quite happy to be on my own. I know how to cook. I know how to clean. It’s actually good to get to really know every nook and cranny of your home. I mean, I have to be really honest,” Campbell tells the publication.
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.@NaomiCampbell‘s community of Black women helps explain the attitude she has taken toward a younger generation of models, and the mentoring role that has made her a kind of surrogate mother to many in her industry. https://t.co/EDt8MkYmbt pic.twitter.com/RlKdxRtmPs
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) October 19, 2020
“I stopped smoking during quarantine, but a friend of mine killed himself, and it really affected me. I called my guy in Israel – he’s great for sugar and cigarettes and addiction stuff – and we’re going to do a session. He told me to just get through this week first,” she added.
Campbell also addresses systemic racism in the issue, particularly in her native England.
“There were a few things that I would do when I was younger that I was told were bad for my race,” she told Vogue. “Now the things I do are not just for me anymore. I think more of my culture and my race, as opposed to thinking about just me.”
.@NaomiCampbell is many things: A trailblazer, lightning rod, truth teller, provocateur and—most of all—mentor and mother figure to models the world over. Campbell talks to Afua Hirsch about a half century of life on her own terms for our November cover. https://t.co/wq9eLrboQB pic.twitter.com/RwQjVaZjj9
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) October 19, 2020
And when it comes to the “angry Black woman” stereotype, Campbell admits “I am quite over it.”
“Is it now that we have permission to speak? Well, I have always spoken,” she said.
Campbell also shares with the fashion magazine that she’s writing her autobiography.
“I had this old-school way of looking at it as having to put pen to paper,” she said. “But I had a lovely lunch last year with Clarence Avant. I asked him, ‘Clarence, How do you do it? How do you start writing?’ And he told me, ‘Just start from anywhere. Don’t start from the beginning.’ So it is going to happen!”
You can read her full Vogue feature here.
Vogue’s November issue is available on newsstands nationwide on Oct. 27.
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