Naomi Campbell, star of an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert in London for her 40-year career

Some clothes are impossible to forget.

And if Naomi Campbell has worn them throughout her 40 years as a model, they even become iconic.

For example, Vivienne Westwood's purple platforms with which she slipped at the fall-winter 1993 collection show. Now that they have become a relic and are part of fashion history, the Victoria & Albert Museum will exhibit these shoes, along with another hundred of the supermodel's iconic garments.

It will be the first exhibition that the London museum dedicates to a model, and will open its doors from June 22 to April 6, 2025. As the museum itself promotes, it is a look inside the Campbell closet, and will be shown garments lent by her, as well as from “great personalities” with whom she has paraded in her four decades of career.

This Wednesday, March 13, she herself presented some of the models in a hotel in the British capital, which featured pieces by Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Virgil Abloh and more that can be seen. see in the gallery.

One of the first confirmed dresses was the lace and feather Valentino that Pierpaolo Piccioli designed for Campbell to wear at the 2019 Met Gala, which is already part of catwalk history.

One more tribute for the 53-year-old model, who was already the first black woman recognized as a fashion icon by the British Fashion Awards, in 2019. The exhibition, which has been baptized only by name,

, will follow the retrospective of the museum's current exhibition, dedicated to the designer Coco Chanel.

As the Victoria & Albert Museum itself states on its website, it is based on Campbell's extensive haute couture wardrobe and

ensembles from key moments in her career, along with loans from designer archives and objects from the collections. from the museum.

In addition, all this gives a glimpse of the activism of the British woman, who fought for equality from an early age: she joined the Black Girls Coalition - an association that ensures the rights of black women - in 1989 and headed the issue titled

Italia 's

in 2007, calling for diversity on the catwalk.

The model's life will be exposed in four biographical sections: from her debut at the age of 15 after being discovered in Covent Garden to her consolidation as an archetype in the fashion industry, from which she has not yet retired.

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“For me, as a fashion historian, what is fascinating is the way her 40-year career intersects with the best of haute couture,” the exhibition curator, Sonnet Stanfill, confesses to Vogue

.

“We are telling the story of a long career through clothing that is historic, and working to bring her voice and her perspective to the forefront,” she adds.

The museum will put together the exhibition under the complete supervision of Naomi Campbell in each of its aspects: “I think it would be presumptuous for anyone to tell the story of another, much less one of the most prolific figures in contemporary culture, so “We want to bring their perspective and voice to the fore,” the commissioner assumes.

The Vivienne Westwood platform shoes that Naomi Campbell slipped on at a catwalk show in 1993. Kevin Percival / Courtesy Vivienne Westwood / V&A Museum (© Victoria and Albert Museum, Lo)

“I am honored to share that the remarkable fashion career of my dear friend Naomi Campbell will be celebrated at the V&A next year,” said another curator, Edward Enninful, former editor-in-chief of the edition, in October. British

.

“From her groundbreaking debut at just 15 years old to becoming the first black model to appear on the cover of Paris

, Naomi's journey has been nothing short of iconic.

Her impact as a supermodel, activist, philanthropist and creative collaborator has left an indelible mark on contemporary culture,” Enninful, who is in charge of the photographic part that will be shown alongside the designs, described her at the time.

Friends for years, the supermodel did not want to miss the March cover of British

, with which the boss - the first black and homosexual man to rise in the magazine's hierarchy - said goodbye to his position, managing to bring together at the same time 40 great personalities of the industry in a single photograph.

Naomi Campbell portrayed by Steven Meisel, one of the photos that will be displayed at the V&A and which illustrates information about the exhibition on the museum's website.V&A Museum

In a documentary released in the fall of 2023, in which Campbell presented her new clothing collection with the fashion brand PrettyLittleThings - it can be seen on YouTube - she wanted to present herself to the youth of the moment as one of the voices of the experience in the textile industry.

The model, who became a mother at the age of 50 with her first daughter via surrogate, and added to her family last year, dares to say in that documentary that she does not believe that the young generation knows who she is: “I want them to Young girls take advantage of this collection to be themselves, so that they feel confident in how they wear these clothes designed by me and interpret who they are in the clothes.

“This way they can bring their own essence and style to the outfits,” she stated.

The supermodel has always appeared, at least in front of the gallery, very sure of herself: the silver Dolce & Gabbana dress with which in 2007 she ended her fifth and last day of service to the company has gone down in history. community to which she was convicted for attacking an employee.

Many hope it will be one of the suits on display at the Victoria & Albert.