Supermodel Naomi Campbell has previously opened up about her past experiences with racism within the fashion community, sharing that she felt she needed to be “twice as good” as a white model to be considered.
However, in a recent interview, Campbell shared how two fellow famous models became allies, who “really put themselves out there” for her.
Speaking with The Observer, Campbell opened up about the racial sidelining she experienced in the early ’90s as she rose to become one of the top five supermodels in the world.
But the London-born model would often find herself sidelined for jobs due to her skin colour or, if she was booked, forced to work with make-up artists who couldn’t accommodate for her skin colour.
“Now it’s OK to speak up, right?” she said. “But when I spoke up when I was younger, I was ‘difficult’.”
Campbell went on to reveal that two supermodels Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington became allies for her, quickly becoming close friends and refusing to work for designers who wouldn’t book her.
“They really put themselves out there, Linda and Christy, in terms of supporting me with designers back in the day who hadn’t used a model of colour yet,” she explained. “We were friends outside of work.”
And their close friendship remains today, as all three who famously formed the ‘Trinity’, apparently also share a WhatsApp group.
While Campbell was instrumental in breaking down barriers for women of colour in the modelling industry, she explained that there’s still a way to go until we see equality.
“Now I want to see them pay models of colour in the right way,” she said. “Now I want to see that the board seats are given, and no: ‘Let’s make a diversity board for this’.”
