Blue-eyed blondes get the best jobs, claims Naomi

The supermodel Naomi Campbell spoke out against prejudice in the fashion industry yesterday, claiming that blue-eyed blonde models get the pick of the best jobs.

She blamed "narrow mindedness" and said she worries about younger black women who are just starting their modelling careers.

The supermodel who was known as the "Black Panther" and "Black Bardot" when she started modelling 11 years ago, steered clear of accusing the fashion industry of racism.

"I don't know what I would call it. Narrow mindedness? But then you've got to understand, this business is about selling and blonde and blue- eyed girls are what sells," said Ms Campbell in an interview in the Daily Telegraph today.

She put much of the blame on magazines and claimed that last year she was bumped off the front cover of American Vogue by a photograph of a white model.

"They put me on the inside cover, when I originally had the cover," she told the newspaper.

"I felt it would have been better not to use my picture at all. I don't let it get to me. It just makes me realise certain people are not my friends and that it is a business."

She criticised the fashion industry for seeing black models as a trend one year and redundant the next.

She said: "The situation is ridiculous. One season they are not using black girls, then it's six or seven of us."