Naomi Campbell Turns The V&R Out: V 54 PH Mario Sorrenti

I was having brunch with a friend of mine who works as a photographer. The inevitable subject of July's Vogue Italia and the preview of Naomi's story freshly posted on the mag's website came up. "There Is Only One Naomi" was the story's title and we were pondering... Why such a pointed message? It was there and then that I found myself provoked into speaking a truth that has been on my mind for a while . "You know what I'm thinking ? Those damn lazy managers should stop sending out all these ... the-next-Naomi-Campbells... Especially after that VI edit there is no such thing. They take this perfectly sweet little kid and slap a weave on her-to look JUST like Naomi and to walk JUST like Naomi and then you have this little girl running around in New York or Paris in big sunglasses thinking diva-diva-diva. As a client, you know what it makes you want to do? Book the Original."
I think I shocked my brunch companion,because I'm not usually that blunt but there it was.The bee trapped in my bonnet for months was out. I think a great model manager is obliged to package each and every one of his girls in clever, striking, innovative ways that renders each girl unique and compelling and intriguing to those clients who would best respond to that particular girl. The great success of Liya Kebede was she was Liya Kebede and not a reference to anybody else.
Formulas are fantastic because it means less thinking when you wake up in the morning. You press auto-pilot and send the girls out in the established flight pattern. But the thing that the VI edit of Naomi's brought home to me is that diva stance was coming from a real place.

"She earned that hair and she earned the title: Naomi PH: Inez van Lamsweedre and Vinoodh Matadin ID August 08 via tfs

Whatever her faults, that woman is a fighter and a challenger and fully invested in what she does. That shows in her eyes, it justifies that sheath of hair. She earned that hair and she earned the title . That killer instinct is what burns in Campbell's walk and whatever the naysaying...she's done it again. When I got this V preview lensed by Sorrenti of La Noami at MDC late this evening, I thought "There she goes again. Via YSL, VI , V..she's claimed another great career landmark". Speaking of career landmark, that brings me to the Sessilee edit in VI which we uploaded at MDC in its 30 page entirety. Sessilee's another fighter and she has never abandoned her pure sense of self to be anybody's Naomi wannabe. She was herself and in full occupation of that self. As I said over at MDC, this girl took that booking and went for every shot like it were life and death. Sessilee shimmered with a kind of 70's finesse that would have made St Laurent swivel in a double take. Individuality. That is the great hope of the moment and for Arlenis and Jourdan and Chanel and all those other beautiful kids in July's VI I look forward to seeing them shine as the unique and original beauties they truly are.