Campbell was born in Streatham, London, England. Her mother, Valerie Campbell (née Morris), is a former ballet dancer of Afro-Jamaican descent. In accordance with her mother’s wishes, Campbell has never met her unnamed Jamaican]] father, who left then-18-year-old Valerie two months after the birth of their daughter. As a young child, Campbell was left in the care of a nanny while her mother travelled across Europe with the dance troupe Fantastica. At age 10, she was accepted into the Italia Conti Academy stage school, where she studied ballet. She attended Dunraven School, a comprehensive school run by Inner London Education Authority in Streatham.
Naomi swimsuit shot
Modelling
Campbell’s first public appearance came at age 7 in February 1978 when she was cast as a pupil to appear in a music video for Bob Marley’s song “Is This Love?”. In 1982, she appeared in another music video, this time as a tap dancer for Culture Club’s “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya”.
At age 15 and while still a student at the Italia Conti Academy, Campbell was spotted by Beth Boldt, a former Ford model and head of the Synchro model agency, while window-shopping in Covent Garden. Campbell soon opted to become a fulltime model, signing with Elite Model Management. Campbell started her career as a catwalk model and was quickly hired for various high-profile advertising campaigns, including Lee Jeans and Olympus Corporation, which introduced her to the American market. Campbell also completed campaigns for Ralph Lauren and François Nars. At age 15 in April 1986, Campbell appeared on the cover of Elle, replacing a model who had cancelled out of the appearance.
In August 1988, she appeared on the cover of Vogue Paris as that publication’s first black cover girl, after friend and mentor, Yves St. Laurent, threatened to withdraw all of his advertising from the publication after it refused to place Campbell, or any black model, on its cover. In addition to Vogue Paris, Campbell also became the second black model after Donyale Luna to appear on the cover of Vogue UK (replacing fellow black model Veronica Webb who apparently declined to work with the magazine), Vogue Nippon, Time magazine and later Vogue China. She has also posed nude for Playboy and appeared in Madonna’s 1992 book Sex, in a set of photos with Madonna and rapper Big Daddy Kane. In total, Campbell has appeared on more than 100 magazine covers.
She famously starred in George Michael’s music video “Freedom! ‘90″, where she lip-synched to his song along with fellow supermodels Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz. In 1992, Campbell appeared in Madonna’s music video for “Erotica”, which featured filmed footage from photoshoots for the book Sex. In addition to the previously mentioned music videos, Campbell has appeared in videos for artists such as Michael Jackson, Nelly, Jagged Edge, Jay-Z, P.Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G, Macy Gray, Prince and Usher.
The high point of Campbell’s career was in the early 1990s, when she was part of the two major “supermodel” powerhouses: the Big Six, alongside Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Kate Moss, and The Trinity, alongside Turlington and Evangelista.
In 2008, when talking about the model profession, she said: “Models need to earn their stripes – I just think the term is used a little too loosely. Kate Moss is obviously a supermodel but, after Gisele [Bündchen], I don’t think there’s been one.”[4]
In 2009, Campbell gained a lot of attention after she dubbed the fashion industry as “racist.” In an interview with Glamour magazine, Campbell was quoted as saying “You know, the American president may be black, but as black woman, I am still an exception in this business. I always have to work harder to be treated equally.”
Campbell is signed to IMG Models (New York City), Storm Model Management (London), Marilyn Agency (Paris), and D’management Group (Milan).
