Instead of the usual late start to the awards ceremonies, the Fashion Row Show and Style Awards in Harlem got underway on time Tuesday night at Grant’s Tomb.
In her opening remarks for the “Night of Legends” event, Brandice Daniel, founder of Harlem’s Fashion Row, encouraged the hundreds of attendees to support Black designers by spending at least 10 percent of their clothing and home furnishings purchases on their creations “to create a shift in the industry.” She also noted that Black consumers’ spending power on apparel and footwear is expected to reach $70 billion by 2030.
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Kicking off the program, Anna Wintour, Chief Content Officer and Global Editorial Director of Condé Nast, told the audience that she is “a very punctual person” and “I have the honor of presenting tonight to someone who is often late. [referring to Naomi Campbell, this year’s Icon of the Year honoree]. So Samir [Nasr, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar,] has agreed to step in for me.
“Unfortunately, I have to leave after saying everything I wanted to say about the extraordinary Naomi Campbell.”
Sources said Campbell’s scheduled award date had been moved up earlier Tuesday and the supermodel was already at another press event that she was unable to leave. A representative for Harlem’s Fashion Row did not respond to a media request Wednesday. Wintour and Campbell’s vehicles reportedly passed each other as Wintour left and Campbell arrived.
Wintour described Campbell as one of the most fearless people she knows, saying the model began speaking the truth about inequality and injustice early in her career — “at a time when it wasn’t as common to do that. Naomi’s courage has benefited the entire fashion industry.”
Campbell has become a muse to designers including Marc Jacobs, Virgil Abloh and Azzedine Alaïa and has also become “a fashion godmother to generations of young models and designers,” Wintour said. He noted that Campbell is now a devoted mother of two, “no small feat, and a champion of global causes, most notably funding research to combat the AIDS epidemic and advocating for its victims.”
Nasr was then hailed as editor of the year by Tracee Ellis Ross, whom she first befriended as interns at Mirabella magazine in 1994. Four years after landing a job at Harper’s Bazaar — a first for a black woman — Nasr said the questions that helped define her purpose in that post were: “‘Who gets to be part of that record? Who gets to be part of that process of capturing it for future generations, so they know we were here?'”
Nasr explained that she shared her award, saying she sincerely hopes that “you see something of yourself and your kind in the stories we tell and the creative teams we trust at Harper’s Bazaar to tell them. I hope you feel seen and celebrated, and that your stories, our stories — the stories that define this moment and the culture — are forever etched into the record of this time.”
Before presenting to Campbell, Nasr explained that Wintour had just asked her to do it. “Anna is one of my first bosses, so when she asks you to do something. [It’s] “Yes ma’am, I’m here.”
Nasr took the opportunity to describe how she first met Campbell during a Vogue shoot with photographer Ellen von Unwerth in San Miguel, Mexico. An assistant to Grace Coddington at the time, Nasr recalled landing a hot air balloon in the town square, where the supermodel was decked out in head-to-toe Voyage. “You were so warm and kind to me. I was so nervous to meet you. That trip really made an impression on me,” the Harper’s Bazaar editor in chief said, adding that Campbell is this month’s cover star.
Campbell opened with, “Yeah, Naomi is always late… I want to say this: ‘Everything is meant to work, the way it’s meant to work. It wasn’t my choice to have the other lady [Wintour]I would much rather have this [referring to Nasr].”
That apparent insult caused a ripple in the crowd of hundreds and drew applause. “I have to speak my truth. I’m always on a [quest] To be honest, why would you change it now, at this age?”
Campbell told the audience how, as a teenager, she went to Harlem, NY, to hear the late Reverend Calvin Butts. One of her last trips to the neighborhood was to attend André Leon Talley’s memorial service, where she arranged for a custom white Schiaparelli ensemble and a vintage white Rolls-Royce. “André wouldn’t have had it any other way,” she said.
The supermodel thanked Harlem’s Fashion Row founder Daniel and her team for their “dedication to bringing diverse voices to fashion.” Campbell added: “We still have to thank Anna Wintour, because she took the time to come here and give me the award even though I wasn’t there.”
In her acceptance speech, Campbell said Wintour began supporting her career in 1987 by “taking a chance on a young black girl from South London” and giving her a photo shoot for British Vogue. “I thank you for your influence and your continued support in moving fashion forward.”
She also praised the “trailblazers who paved the way for a young black girl like me,” including Bethann Hardison, Iman, Naomi Sims, Beverly Johnson, Sonia Cole and Alva Chinn. “These are the women who showed me what to do when I was 17 or 18 and was hired by Mr. [Yves] Saint Laurent for my first couture show. I had no idea. I was terrified. They showed me how to take off my cape, execute, and watch the chandelier so it wouldn’t take off my hat, which it did. I’m eternally grateful,” Campbell said.
She also spoke about how her mother and grandmother taught her the value of hard work, perseverance and “never giving up,” and shared the award with them and her two daughters. More than anything, the Icon Award is a call to action for the industry from Campbell’s perspective. Having just agreed to be part of a company that sells African cotton, Campbell said, “Nothing would please me more than to see the brands come back to the motherland and buy it where it originally came from.”
All in all, inclusivity goes beyond the people in advertising and on the runways, she said. “It’s about who controls the narrative, where we read it and watch it. Who gets the money for brands and who makes decisions in the boardrooms? Virgil [Abloh] was one of them, if not the one, who was given a seat at the management table.”
Campbell encouraged young creatives, saying that their “talent, vision and determination are not only valuable but essential. We need it to evolve this business and in a fair and balanced way.” Campbell explained that she spends much of her free time traveling in search of new talent, saying, “I’ve been doing this long enough that I don’t need to do Naomi anymore. You know what I mean?”
Campbell called on attendees to “demand representation at all levels,” saying, “Let’s support and uplift each other and redefine what ‘icon’ means. It’s not just the pinnacle of an individual. It’s an achievement as a force for a collective process. … The fight for equality and for representation in a fashion industry that truly reflects the beautiful diversity of our world is ongoing. I’m certainly not going to slow down until I feel like we’re being equally represented across the globe — from the inside out.”
Accepting the Virgil Abloh award from Corey Smith, LVMH’s vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, Teyana Taylor spoke emphatically about how growing up in Harlem shaped her style and drive. She explained that she started a group with her two brothers and a cousin called Team NERD [an acronym for Not Everybody Really Doingit]Taylor said they loved Pharrell Williams and rode skateboards and BMX bikes, with “the latest dunks and flip-up lenses. But with or without lenses, it was clear we had an eye for the look, the moment, the ‘It’ factor.”
But Taylor said her main goal with Team NERD was to create a safe space for the kids, who were just like her. “Dressing gave us freedom. It was our imagination.”
Another fashion-forward guest of honor, Shiona Turini, accepted the Stylist of the Year award from Lena Waithe. Turini said she knows “what it’s like to do this work in an industry that often sidelines us or doesn’t acknowledge the role that Black creatives play in sustaining and revitalizing the fashion industry.” The Bermudian costume designer and stylist said she was inspired by June Ambrose, Antoinette Messam and Ruth Carter. “Their hustle and hard work has opened doors for so many of us,” said Turini, who acknowledged that she is proud to have dressed and worked with Black women over the years. [including Beyoncé].”
Turini said the honor comes “amidst attempts to take away opportunities for Black creatives, attempts to roll back DEI initiatives and policies, attempts to give us watered-down versions of Black history, and pushback against reproductive rights. Our work has never just been about fashion. It’s always been political. We’ve always been the change.”
Before the event wrapped up, guests watched a fashion show featuring collections from Aaron Potts’ A. Potts label, LaTouché and Nicole Benefield. While Wintour wasn’t there to check out their designs, Campbell sat front row, at times cheering and later moving back before heading out for the night. As part of Nordstrom’s partnership with Harlem’s Fashion Row, the retailer is offering three exclusive collections from Megan Renee, House of Aama and Harbison.
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