Naomi Campbellwas named the 2023 recipient of the ‘Legacy Honour’ award at this year’s Visionary Arts Awards. The event was held at the Ham Yard hotel in London on March 21.
Naomi stunned in Schiaparelli, wearing a fitted navy midi dress that boasted a figure-hugging, corset style silhouette and a gold chain with a floral embellishment as a super chic halter neck strap. The 52-year-old supermodel walked for the brand during Paris Couture Week last month.She also wore Schiaparelli to the 2023 Oscars.
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Naomi picked up the 'Legacy Honour' award
She paired the dress with a black and gold pair of Daniel Roseberry’s signature sculpted toe shoes, and wore her signature dark tresses sleek and poker straight.
What are the Visionary Arts Awards?
The ceremony honours people who have made a societal change in the popular culture and arts industries. In association with the UK anti racism charity, Show Racism the Red Card, honourees are those who have made a difference for diversity and inclusion, mental health awareness, the climate crisis and more.
Before Naomi, only Sir Trevor Macdonald, Sir Bob Geldof and Nelson Mandela – whom the model dedicated her prestigious accolade to – have won the award previously. She made history with her win as the both the first winner representing the fashion industry, and the first female.
She was visibly moved to tears when accepting her award
In her acceptance speech she said: “When I started this I committed myself to working with Nelson, who I call Tata, in 1993, it wasn’t for accolades. It was just something I felt deeply connected to and I wanted to do.”
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She continued: “I must give a special thanks to my tata. Tata Nelson Mandela whose words and more importantly, deeds, have kept me going. Yes when he was alive, but even more so when he passed away.”
Naomi explained the importance of continuing her work to champion diversity in the fashion industry: “At one point there was a standstill, where 1% of models of colour were being used on runways. So we decided at the time we were going to write letters to the brands, to the CEOs [...] to ask them for a cup of tea and show them what’s not happening. And that actually proved to make some progress.”
“It’s not perfect but there’s a big improvement now than there ever was before”
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