Naomi Campbell

Naomi Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is a British model. Scouted at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognisable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and early 1990s,^[3] and she was one of six models of her generation declared "supermodels" by the fashion world.^[4] As the most famous black model of her time,^[5] Campbell has been outspoken throughout her career against the racial bias that exists in the fashion industry.^[6] Her personal life is widely reported, particularly her affairs with famous men—including boxer Mike Tyson and actor Robert De Niro^[7]—and several high-profile assault 

 convictions.^[8]

mpbell was born in the working-class Streatham^[9] In accordance with her mother's wishes, Campbell has never met her father,^[10] who abandoned her mother when she was four months pregnant,^[9] and who went unnamed on her birth certificate.^[10] She took on the surname Campbell from her mother's second marriage.^[9] Her half-brother, Pierre, was born in 1986.^[11] Campbell is of Afro-Jamaican descent, as well as of Chinese Jamaican ancestry through her paternal grandmother, who carried the family name Ming.^[9] district of South London, the daughter of Jamaican-born dancer Valerie Morris.

During her early years, Campbell lived in Rome, where her mother worked as a modern dancer.^[7] Following their return to London, she was left in the care of her maternal grandmother, Ruby, while her mother travelled across Europe with the dance troupe Fantastica.^[11] Campbell later blamed her ill temper and well-documented violent outbursts on the emotional trauma of being abandoned by her mother as a child, stating, "It comes from, I think, an abandonment issue and it comes from also trying to just build up a family around me that's not my immediate family and if I feel a mistrust, then all my cards go down."^[12]

At five years old, Campbell was enrolled at the Barbara Speake Stage School.^[11] Her first public appearance came at the age of seven, in 1978, when she was featured in the music video for Bob Marley's "Is This Love".^[13] That same year, she played Snow White in two episodes of the Children's Film FoundationThe Chiffy Kids.^[14] At the age of ten, Campbell was accepted into the Italia Conti Academy, where she studied ballet.^[9] Two years later, she tap-danced in the music video for Culture Club's "I'll Tumble 4 Ya".^[7] television series

In 1993, Campbell twice appeared on the cover of American Vogue; in April, alongside Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Stephanie Seymour, and Helena Christensen, and again, solo, in June. She famously fell on the runway in Vivienne Westwood's foot-high platform shoes, which were later displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.^[15] Despite her success, however, Elite Model Management, which had represented Campbell since 1987, fired her in September, on the grounds that "no amount of money or prestige could further justify the abuse" to staff and clients.^[21] Elite founder John Casablancas described her as "manipulative, scheming, rude, and impossible."^[21]

In the mid 1990s, Campbell branched out into other areas of the entertainment industry.^[21] Her novel Swan, about a supermodel dealing with blackmail, was released in 1994 to poor reviews.^[22] It was ghostwritten by Caroline Upcher, with Campbell explaining that she "just did not have the time to sit down and write a book."^[23] That same year, Campbell released her album babywoman, named after designer Rifat Ozbek's nickname for her.^[7] A critical and commercial failure,^[24] the album produced the single "Love and Tears", which reached No. 40 on the UK charts.^[25] In 1995, Campbell and fellow models Claudia Schiffer and Elle Macpherson invested in an ill-fated chain of restaurants called the Fashion Café.^[4] Campbell also attempted an acting career: she had small roles in Miami Rhapsody and Spike Lee's Girl 6, as well as a recurring role on the second season of New York Undercover.^[14]

In 1998, Time declared the end of the supermodel era.^[4] By then, Campbell had mostly retired from the runway,^[4] but she continued print modelling. In 1999, she signed her first cosmetics contract with Cosmopolitan Cosmetics, a division of Wella, through which she launched several signature fragrances.^[7] In November of that year, she posed with twelve other top models for the "Modern Muses" cover of the Millennium Issue of American Vogue, shot by Annie Leibovitz.^[7] The following month, she appeared in a white string bikini and furs on the cover of Playboy.^[7] In October 2001, she appeared with rapper Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs on the cover of British Vogue, with the headline "Naomi and Puff: The Ultimate Power Duo".^[7]

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