Supermodel Naomi Campbell takes the cover story of Interview Magazine‘s Spring 2021 edition lensed by fashion photographer Hugo Comte. In charge of styling was Edem Dossou, with casting direction from Anita Bitton at Establishment Casting, and exclusive production by Abi Bickley. Beauty is work of hair stylist Laurent Philippon at Bryant Artists, and makeup artist Daniel Sallstrom using Pat McGrath Labs at MA World Group. Interview by designer Marc Jacobs.
I enjoy dressing up. I appreciate the workmanship that goes into clothes and the creativity that everyone puts into it. I want to know, “Was it handmade? How many hours did it take?” But what I really want is to help make the industry inclusive of all the countries that have not been included in our business. That’s what I’m really focused on in all creative forms, that they get the same opportunities and platforms as the rest of the world, because they are a part of the world. – Campbell
One of the things that’s really come to surface right now for me is that we don’t have any control over our image as models, and that’s really sad. When I was doing my book with Taschen, there were a few photographers whose names I won’t say, but who we do know and who I’ve worked for over the years for, like, one dollar, who came back saying they wanted all this money to be in the book. And I was like, “Excuse me, you’ve forgotten.” There’s going to have to be a change in our industry where they protect us as models better than they have, because we cannot just sign our image away and not have any ownership over it. That’s why doing this docuseries [The Supermodels] with Linda [Evangelista], Christy [Turlington], and Cindy [Crawford] was so important, because it’s our legacy that we’re talking about. I’m bringing this up because I feel like it’s going to come up sooner than later, so it might as well come up now. When we signed papers giving our lives away, no one ever explained anything back then, and when you’re younger, you want so much to be in a magazine, or to do the shoot, so you just sign these things, but no one ever really, really explained what the small print was about. – Campbell
Photography by © Hugo Comte for Interview Magazine, read more at interviewmagazine.com