There are a lot of things in the world that don’t make sense. There are a lot of unanswered questions that keep us up at night. The one that has plagued many of us in the beauty world for far too long is this: How has Naomi Campbell never been the spokesperson for a beauty brand? Well, for once, something in this unpredictable world has been answered: Campbell will be the face of the new NARS spring 2019 campaigns.
Campbell was, among many firsts, the first black woman to appear on the cover of Vogue in September 1989. While most of her super-famous, supermodel peers have been spokespeople for major cosmetics brands over the years, she has not. “I’ve never done [a makeup campaign] for anyone. People say, ‘Oh, you’ve got beautiful skin’, and yet I’ve never done one,” she said in a 2017 interview. When asked why that was the case, she gave her interviewer a look that was interpreted clearly as, “You know why.” She, fellow model Iman, and model agent Bethann Hardison have been putting pressure on the fashion industry to diversify the world of modeling in both runway shows and print campaigns.
François Nars and Campbell have held a close professional relationship for the past twenty years (Campbell and Alek Wek were both featured in a NARS ad in 1998). “Naomi is a living icon and brings such strong personality to the camera,” says Nars in an Instagram post. “She and I are like family. I have known her since the very beginning of her career. From the start, I have admired her, her beauty, and her style.” In addition to the Radiance Repowered campaign, she will also work on a new Orgasm campaign later next year. What better pairing for a legendary blush than a legendary model.
