London Naomi Campbell exhibition a hit for fashion fans

London’s V&A Museum is celebrating the almost 40-year career of fashion icon Naomi Campbell with an unforgettable exhibition.

Not many models could sustain a solo fashion exhibition. According to the curators at London’s V&A Museum, in fact, there’s only one – Naomi Campbell.

“So much more than just a muse, Naomi’s career is a story of collaboration, eliciting transformative results,” says Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A. “The V&A’s honoured to work with Naomi on this exhibition. I couldn’t think of anyone else who you could do this for.”

Having staged sell-out fashion exhibitions such as Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto, and Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, this year the curators decided to dedicate a show to the 40-year career of Campbell – the first exhibition about one model. The result is Naomi: In Fashion.

Discovered at age 15, South Londoner Campbell, now 54, is still working and the exhibition reflects her incredible longevity. There’s a 1981 Azzedine Alaia dress, right up to her recent catwalk show for Burberry. It’s a remarkable fashion timeline, with a mix of her couture archive, loaned designer gowns and items from the V&A’s collection, plus memorabilia, multimedia displays and photography. It’s self-narrated, so you hear Campbell explain how she first started performing in music videos for Bob Marley and Culture Club, before she was scouted while shopping. You then follow her meteoric rise in the ’80s and ’90s era of supermodels. Just two years after beginning her career, she was a cover girl, the first black model to grace the cover of Vogue Paris.

Around 100 looks and accessories are on show, spanning Alexander McQueen and Chanel to Burberry, Jean Paul Gaultier and Yves Saint Laurent. Among the gowns are a stunning Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen dress custom-made for the 2012 London Olympics and the Balenciaga bin-bag gown she modelled in 2022.

There are also iconic outfits, such as the 1989 Thierry Mugler car-inspired corset, and the Vivienne Westwood blue platforms Campbell wore when she fell over on the runway in 1993.

A section on her advocacy for equity and social change has lots of talking heads from peers and friends, such as Kate Moss, who admits she was scared to speak to her at first. And it addresses Naomi’s community service in 2007, when she was convicted of throwing a phone at her maid. Sentenced to work in the New York Sanitation Department, she famously appeared in a Dolce & Gabbana gown, also on display.

Visitors get to emulate Campbell’s walk on a virtual runway, before sashaying off to the gift shop. It’s a hit for fashion fans visiting London.

Naomi: In Fashion, London’s V&A, until April 2025.

Originally published as London Naomi Campbell exhibition a hit for fashion fans