SUPER EVERYTHING

Activist. Icon... The world has spent more than three decades trying to define Naomi Campbell. But she'd rather do that for herself.

- OTEGHA UWAGBA

An important part of the mythos surrounding Naomi Campbell—supermodel, activist, fashion icon, and an occasional hothead— lies in her origin story. You probably already know it by now, but just to recap: Naomi, 15, a schoolgirl hailing from the fairly unremarkable streets of London’s Streatham neighbourhood, was spotted by a model scout while out window-shopping in London’s West End. It’s a story...a world away from how most successful models these days seem to be discovered, either scouted via Instagram, or ushered to the front of the queue by virtue of their famous parents. Between her and fellow ’90s icon (and close friend) Kate Moss, Naomi was responsible for a generation of British teenage girls trying their best to look ‘modely’ as they wandered around the big Topshop on Oxford Street, hoping they too might be ‘spotted’ while out shopping on a Saturday afternoon.

Naomi’s backstory makes it seem like a chance encounter which was responsible for changing the trajectory of her life, as though hers is some sort of ‘right place, right time’ Cinderella story. But then, as you’re sitting opposite her in a hotel suite in a discreet European location, you realise that with a face like hers—those formidable cheekbones sweeping upward as though in tribute to the celestial beings that must have played a role in their creation, and those plump, perfectly proportioned lips—Naomi Campbell was always going to be famous.