The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2024 - Issue 36

Jada Brookes attended the Naomi: In Fashion exhibition at the V&A Museum and was fascinated by the supermodel’s modelling journey. Naomi: In Fashion Exhibition biteexhibition O ne day after school, in the spring of 1986, Naomi Campbell took a detour to Covent Garden with her friends. At the same time, Beth Boldt, head of Synchro Model Agency, was walking through the same area with her daughter when she spotted the 15-year-old. “When I saw her, you could tell she radiated beauty. I had to go up to her and ask,” Boldt told Vogue online in 2018. “Would you be interested in modelling? You’re so beautiful.” At the Naomi: In Fashion exhibition at the V&A Museum, the supermodel recalls meet- ing the fashion scout that transformed her life. “How was I going to explain to my moth- er that I was in Covent Garden, how did I get this card, and how did I meet this woman?” she reveals on a recording. “Why was I steal- ing her jacket every morning before I went to school in high heels to look grown up? My plan would be unfoiled, and I didn’t know how I would explain that to my mum.” Campbell has been working since she was young. She attended the Barbara Speake Stage School in Acton and then the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, where she studied ballet, initially intending to be a dancer. The seven-year-old appeared in Bob Marley’s ‘Is This Love’ music video in 1978 and tap-danced in Culture Club’s music vide- os for ‘I’ll Tumble 4 Ya’ and ‘Mistake Number 3’ in 1983 and 1984. Before her 16th birth- day, she appeared on the front cover of Brit- ish Elle and then French Elle . She became the first British Black model to feature on the cover of British Vogue in 1988, followed by Vogue France after Yves Photographer Steven Meisel Image Courtesy Azzedine Alaïa Foundation Image Courtesy Off-White Image Courtesy New Orleans Brading