Fashion icon Naomi Campbell was honored last night at a New York Fashion Week event and shaded legendary Vogue editor Anna Wintour during the first minute of her acceptance speech, then thanked her a few minutes later.
It was an apparent response to Wintour calling Campbell out for being chronically late for appearances — “I am a very punctual person, and I have the honor of presenting tonight to someone who is often late,” Wintour said, drawing laughter from the crowd. Campbell, who had not arrived as Wintour was introducing her, didn’t take kindly to the tongue-lashing.
“I want to say this, everything’s meant to work out the way it’s meant to work out,” said Campbell, 54, a supermodel who has appeared on the covers of Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Playboy, and countless other magazines. “It wasn’t my choice to have the other lady,” she said, referring to Wintour, who was so annoyed with Campbell that she left abruptly after the first introduction.
“I’d much rather have this,” Campbell continued, referring to Harper’s Bazaar editor Samira Nasr, who gave Campbell a second introduction when the model arrived. Nasr is half-Trinidadian.
“I have to speak my truth,” the supermodel said immediately after the crowd reacted to her comments. “I’ve always been unapologetically truthful, right? So why should I change it now at this age?”
Later in her acceptance speech, Campbell, who currently has a collection with Hugo Boss, thanked Wintour.
“We must still say thank you to Anna Wintour as she did take the time to come here and give me the award even though I wasn’t here, so thank you Anna Wintour for your support in my career from 1987, meeting a young black girl from South London in British Vogue offices and taking the chance in giving me a shoot,” Campbell said. “I thank you for your influence and your continuing support and pushing fashion forward also.”
Other notables in attendance besides Campbell, Wintour, and Nasr included Harlem fashion legend Dapper Dan, actress Tracee Ellis Ross, recording artist, director, and actress Teyana Taylor, fashion designer and stylist Misa Hylton, actress Vanessa Estelle Williams, entertainer DJ Trauma, actor and hip-hop artist Fedro Starr, and more.
