By Naomi Campbell has talked about her experience of racism in the fashion industry as a young model – and named two fellow supermodels in particular who "really put themselves out there" for her.
In an new interview 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.
Campbell famously appeared on a 1990 Vogue cover alongside Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Tatjana Patitz, which ushered in the new era of the supermodel. But the London-born model would often find herself sidelined for jobs because of her skin colour or, if she was booked, forced to work with make-up artists who didn't carry shades for Black skin.
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"Now it's OK to speak up, right?" she told the newspaper. "But when I spoke up when I was younger, I was 'difficult'."
She said Evangelista and Turlington had her back, 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."
That close friendship remains today, as all three who famously formed 'The Trinity' now share a WhatsApp group.
Campbell was instrumental in breaking down barriers for Black women in modelling and fashion, but she said there's still a way to go until we see parity. "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'."
