Vogue completely dispensed with teasers on its cover this month, simply printing an oddly blurry photograph of Campbell and the headline “Naomi Campbell: the editor.”well, almost all of them” — as well as was polite to everyone, even when she was in a bad mood. High praise indeed.
In her letter to readers, Naomi Campbell includes a handwritten message, “Love and light to Russia,” and says she chose to do the guest editorship because she lives in Russia and because the Russian edition of Vogue has a “special freedom.” She also drops a mention of the fact that one of the shoots is in front of the Moscow City skyscraper. “That was built by my boyfriend,” she says.
This is the second time Campbell has gone native and made a star appearance in media aimed only at Russians. On New Year’s Eve, she appeared on Channel One’s seasonal “Olivye Salad Show” with Doronin, giggling and speaking English.
Russian fashion designer Igor Chapurin asks her in an interview section: “Are you afraid of Russia?” Campbell says no, although she says she was initially shocked at the lack of black people. “I even go to the supermarket sometimes, even though my friends say I shouldn’t,” she reveals. “I’m just a person like anyone else.”
Campbell even writes an article about her regular meetings with former South African leader Nelson Mandela — “my grandfather, the sunniest person on earth” — although, this being Vogue, Mandela only gets one page.
It’s not clear whether Campbell herself wrote the articles that came out under her name. An article where she interviews New York gallerist Tony Shafrazi ends with the cringe-inducing line, “I blushed, but as usual no one noticed.”
(Anna Malpas- Moscow Times)



