Supermodel with an eternal aura, Naomi Campbell is celebrated in the heart of the fashion capital for the influence she has spread across France. On September 26, 2024, within the walls of the Ministry of Culture, Rachida Dati decorated the British model with the title of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. A scintillating recognition, which highlights the struggles of the top 54 years old.
August 1988. Naomi Campbell is on the cover of Vogue Paris. This is the very first time that a black model has posed in cover girl for the French magazine. A fundamental turning point in the history of her career and the fashion industry, which she owes to Yves Saint Laurent. If the title does not envisage this publication, Naomi Campbell tells her sadness to her friend, the late fashion designer. Outraged, Saint Laurent put an end to this injustice by pointing out the total absence of his label in the magazine’s columns and advertisements. From there, Naomi Campbell gets her cover and changes the course of history.
September 2024. Naomi Campbell, charisma and fights remaining intact 36 years later, is made Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. A splash among the gilded figures of the Ministry of Culture, the supermodel is officially celebrated, in front of journalists, guests from the sector in the middle of Fashion Week, her friends and Rachida Dati. The Minister of Culture looks back on the prolific career of the model, which she even describes as political. Legendary fashion creature with a phenomenal gait? Yes, but a woman of character who leads the radical struggle, too. From Yves Saint Laurent to Azzedine Alaïa, Naomi Campbell cites the French houses that have been hers, with an English accent given to emotion.
As a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, Naomi Campbell makes fashion her fight
More than 500 magazine covers, an absolute podium reign in three decades of modeling and the ultimate title, that of supermodelamong the 4 most coveted tops on the planet. Naomi Campbell is a living legend. Even more, she is a pioneer, committed to combining the industry with equality and diversity. In the 80s, the cult fashion director, Jean-Baptiste Mondinoclaims that, due to his skin color, “advertising, makeup and perfume campaigns escape him”. A reality that Rachida Dati returns to, four decades later: “And that has a name: racism”.
Naomi Campbell has denounced this discrimination alongside the model Iman since 2013, as spokesperson for the defense group Diversity Coalition created by Bethann Hardison to promote better representation of women of color in fashion. This Thursday, September 26, 2024, between two shows of Paris Fashion Week to which she contributed so much, Naomi Campbell takes stock. “I am a proud black woman, but I always knew that to succeed, I did not have to give 100%, but 110%.” As a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, the supermodel seat in front row of the industry, a highly deserved position.
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