Naomi Campbell A Success Story

There are tonnes of models out there, but only a handful have been extremely successful.  Naomi Campbell is one of those enormously successful models that is known world wide as a supermodel.  She is an English model and began her career at the age of 15.  Her career is wide and varied, making her an all-around fantastic model that is instantly recognisable in the industry.  Early Life and Career

Campbell was born in South London, but much of her early years were spent in Rome, where her mother worked as a modern dancer.  Eventually, Campbell returned to London, where she was left under the care of relatives while her mother travelled across Europe with a dance troupe.  And at the age of three she began studying ballet and by the age of ten, she was accepted into the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

By the age of 7 in 1978, she was featured in Bob Marley’s music video for “Is This Love” and then at the age of 12 she tap-danced in the music video “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya.”  But her big break wasn’t until 1986 at the age of 15 when she was scouted while window shopping in Covent Garden.  In April of that same year just before her 16th birthday Campbell appeared on the cover of British Elle and from there her career skyrocketed.

International Success

From her humble beginnings with that first appeared on the cover of Elle Campbell went on to accomplish international success as a model.  For about a decade, Campbell enjoyed enormous success as a catwalk model and worked for famous fashion designers like Gianni Versace, Azzedine Alaia, and Isaac Mizrahi.  She also posed for well-known photographers such as Peter         Lindbergh, Herb Ritts, and Bruce Weber.  

Then in 1987 she appeared on the cover of British Vogue as magazine’s first black cover girl since 1966.  Less than a year later she made an appearance on the cover of French Vogue after her friend and mentor Yves St. Laurent threatened to withdraw his advertisement from the magazine if they continued to refuse to feature black models on the cover.  In fact, Campbell faced an inordinate amount of discrimination as a model, but lucky for her, she had friends such as Christy Turlington who supported her and often told designers that if Campbell wasn’t included then they wouldn’t get them at all.

She then went on to grace the cover of American Vogue.  From there on her, as well as a few other models like Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington, were dubbed supermodels and Campbell was one of the most in-demand models in the industry.  Over the years, Campbell also starred in several music videos including Michael Jackson’s “In the Closet” and in 1991 she became the first black model to be featured on the cover of Time magazine.

Although she had great successes on the catwalk Campbell mostly retired from that line of work in 1998 and instead focused primarily on print modelling and to this day, she is still in high demand.  She has participated in a few catwalks since 1998, but only for special occasions such as Dior’s 60th-anniversary fashion show at Versailles.  She has also appeared with fellow black models on the gatefold cover of a landmark all-black issue of Italian Vogue in 2008 which was shot by Steven Meisel.  Campbell has also had great success in reuniting with some of her fellow supermodels Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, and Stephanie Seymour for a Vanity Fair special that discussed the supermodel legacy.

Since these successes, Campbell has also appeared on the cover of Time and pursued an acting and music career which was mostly successful in Japan.  She also has several of her own perfumes which were wildly popular.  But more recently she was on Fox’s Empire where she starred alongside Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson.

The Takeaways

It is difficult to become a model and it may even require a little luck, but no matter what happens whether you are discovered at 15 or simply seek to be a model all on your own hard work and determination are the two most important ingredients.  Persevere even if others tell you that you can’t or doubt you because of the way you look.  And most importantly make honest and real connections with others in the industry that will support you and that you enjoy working with or for.  It’s not easy, but few things in life worth having are, so remember that you can achieve your modelling goal as long as you are willing to work hard and persevere in the face of adversity.