Naomi Campbell on race, addiction and her new V&A exhibition

She was late, of course she was late. But then she’s always been late. When she was working for me at Condé Nast ten years ago, when she interviewed the likes of Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, Piers Morgan and Skepta for GQ, she was always coming to my office in Vogue House, and she was never on time. But that was Naomi. She would then sprawl on my sofa, instruct one of my assistants to fetch her a Big Mac, and pour the charm on. Nothing changes. A few weeks ago, she was 90 minutes late for me at the Dorchester, and even though I gave her a hard time when she eventually turned up, I soon gave up. She has this disarming habit of batting her eyes at you, and it works. Of course, it works. She’s Naomi.

In my experience, she has two speeds: flirtatious and angry. But she didn’t seem too angry when we met. In fact, she told me she was beyond anger. “There’s a few people I regret having a go at,” she said, as she sat down. “But ignoring people is stronger than having a go at them, because no one likes to be ignored.”

The jury appears to be out about her relationship with British Vogue, now that her close friend Edward Enninful has moved on to bigger challenges.

“With Edward it was like family, and I’d be invited up to the Vogue office and I’d get to go there and hang out and be part of it, but I don’t even know where the new Vogue offices are. Are they in London? I don’t even know where they moved to. I’ve been a Condé Nast girl for so long, but I’m not sure what I can do to help. I haven’t been asked to do anything. Edward is like my brother, and what he did was so incredible, in such a short amount of time. Six years is quick. I don’t know what they do now [Vogue]. It’s corporate, and it’s a difficult time.”

We were meeting to discuss her forthcoming show at the V&A, which is a big deal no matter how you measure it. A whole show? Devoted to a living model? That’s not nothing. How does she feel about it? After all, it’s enormously flattering.

“I feel honoured and blessed. It’s been a lot of pressure, going through images I haven’t seen for 25 years. It brought back a lot of emotions, a lot of memories. A lot of stories come up, so there’s a lot of nostalgia. It’s the story of a woman trying to get her story across. I’m proud but I’m more interested in my kids knowing that this is their legacy too, as well as this being the legacy of my work. It’s about family too. I also wanted to share with people the workmanship of all the designers I worked with over the years, and all those creatives I got to work with, some of whom are still with us and some are gone. You’re not going to have another Gianni Versace, another Vivienne Westwood, Azzedine Alaïa or Alexander McQueen. They were gems. These people were perfectionists. It’s a different time now.”

Naomi was always breaking through racial barriers. She was the first black woman to appear on cover of Vogue France, the first black woman on the cover of US Vogue’s September issue. Was it exhausting at the time having to fight all those battles or does she feel a huge sense of satisfaction and pride looking back?

“When you’re actually trying to break those barriers, you don’t really understand what’s happening. You don’t know what you’re doing, you’re just doing it. You don’t have time, and it didn’t register. I was just taking any opportunity. Never forget that when I was being offered all these covers, they were never guaranteed. They were always cover tries, so they could have easily not happened. Throughout the 1990s I was always doing cover tries, never guaranteed covers. That’s what it was like back then for a black woman. Nothing was ever confirmed. You were always waiting – did I get it, did I not? The modelling industry is definitely better these days. And it’s all changed because of social media. These days I feel that if you’re a real model, someone who loves her craft, someone who’s committed to championing young designers, then you will shine. Some are only chosen because they have high social media numbers.

“But then I think to myself, if our generation had had social media, what could we have done? If Cindy [Crawford] and Christie [Turlington], Claudia [Schiffer], Stephanie, Tatjana [Patitz] and I had had social media, where would we be now? Someone said to us when we were screening The Super Models documentary in LA for the Emmy committee, a few weeks ago, they said you are the original influencers and I suppose we were. I had never thought about it like that, but it’s true. We are the original influencers. We’re still incredibly supportive of each other, and I spoke to Christie today actually. Christie I am eternally grateful for because she introduced me to Gianni Versace and told Steven Meisel about me. And Cindy, my original flatmate, we’re still incredibly close still.

“We all still call each other wagon, too. That started with Kate when I used to live in Dublin. We were all wagons. Even Ali Hewson, Bono’s wife. It was just what we all called each other. It was a nickname, a term of endearment. Actually, we don’t really call each other anything else!”

She famously stood by John Galliano after his racist outburst, but is she still friends with him? And is it right he should come back to such fashion prominence? “Hundred per cent,” she said, defiantly. “I’m also in recovery and I totally understand the disease that is alcohol. And I will continue to stand by my friend.”

Let’s face it – Naomi Campbell keeps her friends close and her enemies on the end of a mobile phone, preferably one that’s being hurled in their direction at great force. I once saw her backstage at the Brits berating an assistant for losing her phone and it was a masterclass in delegation (which I think is the polite way of describing it).

One of the great things about Naomi is her self-awareness. She knows she can sometimes go a bit OTT, but she also knows she needs to be kept in check.

“I go back to Streatham a lot as I love south London. My aunts are there, my family is there. I love to shop in Brixton market. I put on my mask and my cap and I buy my Jamaican food, my vegetables. But bloody hell, it’s so gentrified… Brixton Brasserie! I don’t consider myself famous, but my family don’t allow any of that nonsense. I’m still me. It’s more the other way around. Rather than me coming back to Brixton as a famous person, do they embrace me? If there is a confrontation I embrace it. I stop and I speak and they talk to me and I talk to them. It’s the same when I travel. When you go to an emerging market it’s important for them to see you in person and hear what you have to say, so I’m used to it.”

She is also keen to educate her children in London. “I love London and I want my kids educated here. I loved going to school in London, and I’d like my kids to follow in my footsteps. I haven’t decided where we are going to set up shop, but I hope it’s here. I like the English education system, absolutely. I don’t like the American version of the English education system.”

Was she destined to be a star? “I don’t know about a star, but I definitely wanted to be in theatre or the arts as I loved dancing. Whenever I’m in London I’m always saying I want to go to class. But I never find the time. There’s nothing that smells like a ballet room – the floor, the bar - it’s the freedom of expression of dance that I love so much. My daughter likes to dance too. Motherhood is so much fun. You just don’t know what’s going to happen at any given moment. I feel like I’m reliving my childhood. I just hate leaving home. These days when I travel, I try to make it not longer than 48 hours as it’s too disruptive. Unless I can do a job in and out, then the kids have to come with.”

Does she have any regrets? “Look, I’m in recovery so having regrets is difficult for me. I would regret it if I was still out there drinking and using, which I’m not. So I can’t live in regret. I have to live in gratitude.”

Is it easy? “I love being in recovery. I have my core group and we do conference calls four times a day. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, as you can call in. And now I know all the faces to the voices. We started before covid so when that came along, I was ready. It was a great support. One of the good things about covid was learning to stay still for a moment. Reset. Reflect. And just sit down and not fly. I liked being still for a moment.”

But not forever. Now she’s back, modelling, investing, feuding, and the subject of one of the biggest V&A shows for years. Just don’t get on the wrong side of her.

NAOMI: In Fashion, supported by BOSS, opens at the V&A South Kensington on 22 June 2024. Lead image Campbell wears the BOSS look on display in the upcoming exhibition