'I'm controversial. I'm a challenge': Naomi Campbell talks about her 25 years as a supermodel as she poses for a gory Saw-style photo shoot
9/30/2010 11:59:00 AM
kenmouse
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It's definitely not the first time a man has fallen at Naomi Campbell's feet.
But most of them probably aren't sporting a ghostly white complexion and covered in blood and symbolic tattoos.
Clad in black leather, the supermodel posed for a gory, yet, some might say, kinky photo shoot, the male model appearing lifeless at her stilettoed heels.
And it looked like the 40-year-old Londoner had walked on to the set of a Saw film, the tiled walls and blood-stained floors reminiscent of the first instalment of the horror franchise.
Naomi posed for the photo shoot for Interview and a chat with New York art gallery owner Tony Shafrazi for the U.S. publication and spoke to him about her illustrious career on the catwalk.
Naomi was discovered while out shopping in London at the age of 15 and appeared on the cover of Elle the following year.
Soon she was gracing catwalks all over the road, while becoming part of the group of girls - Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, and Helena Christensen - who would become the world's first 'supermodels'.
She said: 'You know, none of us ever cared about this word supermodel. It was just a kind of terminology that the press came up with for whatever reason.
'But what we did like was being together. We were very supportive of one another, my group of girls, and I don’t think that happens so much nowadays. I didn’t feel alone. Those ladies still look amazing today. Time has gone by, but they still look amazing.'
And she said she remains loyal to the designers - Gianni Versace, Azzedine Alaïa, Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld - that put her and her friends on the fashion map and supported the start of their careers.
She added: 'It’s not that I’m forced to be - it’s that they’re creative geniuses and I love what they do. For my whole group of girls, it wasn’t always about how much we were getting paid. We were interested in how creative it looked. We even did ads for designers back in the day who didn’t have any money.'
Naomi said she never saw her colour as being an obstacle when it came to her career but it was 'shocking' when she was the first black model on French Vogue.
She explained: 'When I asked them about it, they were like, “Oh, no. We’ve never had that before.” And I was like, “Oh, really?”
'I remember one time I went to Australia. I don’t know if this is true or not, but the editor in chief of a magazine there told me that she got fired for putting me on the cover.'
Naomi has often been labelled as a diva, with reports of her arriving hours late for shoots and throwing temper tantrums.
And while she admitted that she was 'a challenge', she said she also tries to learn from her mistakes.
She said: 'Look, I’m controversial. It’s not that people don’t know who I am . . . If people want to work with me, then they want to work with me. If they don’t, they don’t.
'I make many mistakes. Many mistakes. I’m not a perfect human being. I have to learn from my mistakes. And a lot of the ones I’ve made have been public.
'But I’m trying to do better. I admit to my mistakes. I admit to the things that I’ve done wrong. I admit it. But I’m trying to do right by myself and my life now.'
She also spoke about being put on the stand at the blood diamonds trial of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor this summer.
She was accused of receiving rough diamonds from Taylor at a dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela in 1997, but she denied knowing who sent her the stones, which she referred to as 'dirty looking pebbles'.
She told Shafrazi: 'I did the best I could there with my knowledge and what I could remember. They were asking me about things that happened 13 years ago.
'I felt like I was on trial myself—and this was not my trial. This wasn’t about me. This was his trial. But anyone looking at it would think it was about me.
'I do take that I said a word that was taken out of context, something about inconvenience. I accept that that was not the right word to say. But when asked if someone’s nervous sitting there, when you’ve got the whole world - people from Australia, people from Brazil, New Zealand - of course I was nervous!
'This is not what I’m used to. Being on a runway, doing a fashion show is what I know.'
And her plans for the future? 'I just want to be quiet. I just want to live my life.'
But most of them probably aren't sporting a ghostly white complexion and covered in blood and symbolic tattoos.
Clad in black leather, the supermodel posed for a gory, yet, some might say, kinky photo shoot, the male model appearing lifeless at her stilettoed heels.
And it looked like the 40-year-old Londoner had walked on to the set of a Saw film, the tiled walls and blood-stained floors reminiscent of the first instalment of the horror franchise.
Naomi posed for the photo shoot for Interview and a chat with New York art gallery owner Tony Shafrazi for the U.S. publication and spoke to him about her illustrious career on the catwalk.
Naomi was discovered while out shopping in London at the age of 15 and appeared on the cover of Elle the following year.
Soon she was gracing catwalks all over the road, while becoming part of the group of girls - Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, and Helena Christensen - who would become the world's first 'supermodels'.
She said: 'You know, none of us ever cared about this word supermodel. It was just a kind of terminology that the press came up with for whatever reason.
'But what we did like was being together. We were very supportive of one another, my group of girls, and I don’t think that happens so much nowadays. I didn’t feel alone. Those ladies still look amazing today. Time has gone by, but they still look amazing.'
And she said she remains loyal to the designers - Gianni Versace, Azzedine Alaïa, Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld - that put her and her friends on the fashion map and supported the start of their careers.
She added: 'It’s not that I’m forced to be - it’s that they’re creative geniuses and I love what they do. For my whole group of girls, it wasn’t always about how much we were getting paid. We were interested in how creative it looked. We even did ads for designers back in the day who didn’t have any money.'
Naomi said she never saw her colour as being an obstacle when it came to her career but it was 'shocking' when she was the first black model on French Vogue.
She explained: 'When I asked them about it, they were like, “Oh, no. We’ve never had that before.” And I was like, “Oh, really?”
'I remember one time I went to Australia. I don’t know if this is true or not, but the editor in chief of a magazine there told me that she got fired for putting me on the cover.'
Naomi has often been labelled as a diva, with reports of her arriving hours late for shoots and throwing temper tantrums.
And while she admitted that she was 'a challenge', she said she also tries to learn from her mistakes.
She said: 'Look, I’m controversial. It’s not that people don’t know who I am . . . If people want to work with me, then they want to work with me. If they don’t, they don’t.
'I make many mistakes. Many mistakes. I’m not a perfect human being. I have to learn from my mistakes. And a lot of the ones I’ve made have been public.
'But I’m trying to do better. I admit to my mistakes. I admit to the things that I’ve done wrong. I admit it. But I’m trying to do right by myself and my life now.'
She also spoke about being put on the stand at the blood diamonds trial of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor this summer.
She was accused of receiving rough diamonds from Taylor at a dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela in 1997, but she denied knowing who sent her the stones, which she referred to as 'dirty looking pebbles'.
She told Shafrazi: 'I did the best I could there with my knowledge and what I could remember. They were asking me about things that happened 13 years ago.
'I felt like I was on trial myself—and this was not my trial. This wasn’t about me. This was his trial. But anyone looking at it would think it was about me.
'I do take that I said a word that was taken out of context, something about inconvenience. I accept that that was not the right word to say. But when asked if someone’s nervous sitting there, when you’ve got the whole world - people from Australia, people from Brazil, New Zealand - of course I was nervous!
'This is not what I’m used to. Being on a runway, doing a fashion show is what I know.'
And her plans for the future? 'I just want to be quiet. I just want to live my life.'
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