Naomi Campbell says she experienced fashion industry 'territorialism' because of skin colour

Campbell recalls her battle to become the first black model to appear on the cover of French Vogue

Naomi Campbell (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images))

Naomi Campbell has said she experienced "territorialism" when she launched her modelling career because of her skin colour.

In August 1988, Streatham-born Campbell became the first black model to appear on the cover of French Vogue, but initially she was told this would be impossible.

"I never use that word 'racism'. I find it a cliché word and I don't want to use it as an excuse," Campbell said during an interview on Alan Carr: Chatty Man. "For me it was, I call it territorialism – where there are people that have that certain territory and they stand their ground and they are not going to change their mind and that is their opinion."

Recalling how she secured her history-making French Vogue, Campbell continued: "I have always risen to every challenge and so basically my other friends had a French Vogue cover and I was like, 'Why can't I have one too?'

"And at first they said no, because they had never had anyone [like her] on it. It was instantly no without thinking. So I thought 'Let me go to my great friend Yves Saint Laurent and tell him', since I was his contract girl. I asked him to fix the situation and he did. That is how I got it."

Campbell, who has sustained a lucrative and high-profile modelling career for nearly 30 years, also outlined her approach to improving diversity in the fashion industry, saying: "As I sit here, I fight for the younger models of colour, and when I say colour I mean of all colours, it's all shades and origins that have a hard time.

"Again, it's not saying 'You’re racist'. "That isn't what it is about. [It's about saying] 'maybe we should remind you when casting to use all colours and more models of colour'.

"I hope that is going to happen in more television in England actually. I think there could be more [diversity] on television in England."