Names and faces
■ After four decades in fashion, the queen of the catwalk is getting her own exhibition. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is launching “NAOMI: In Fashion,” a celebration of Naomi Campbell’s enduring career. The exhibition, which opens in June, will showcase memorable designer outfits worn by Campbell, one of the most recognizable models and Black women in the world. “I’m honored to be asked by the V&A to share my life in clothes with the world,” Campbell, 53, said in a statement. Sonnet Stanfill, a fashion curator at the museum, called Campbell “one of the most prolific and influential figures in contemporary culture.” The exhibition will include some 100 looks and accessories from the biggest names in fashion, from Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana to Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and many others. Highlights include a 1989 Thierry Mugler car-inspired corset made from plastic and metal, a bubble-gum pink Valentino gown and feather cape Campbell wore at the 2019 Met Gala and staggeringly high Vivienne Westwood platform shoes worn by Campbell during her famous 1993 catwalk fall. The London-born Campbell attended stage school from a young age and started her career at 8, when she began performing in music videos for Bob Marley and Culture Club. The aspiring dancer was approached by a model agent when she was 15, and within two years she was strutting down catwalks in Paris and Milan. She was the first Black model to appear on the cover of Vogue France in 1988.
■ A cable car recently dedicated to the late Tony Bennett rolls past the landmark Fairmont hotel where the singer in 1961 first performed the song that would tie him to San Francisco forever. San Francisco officials on Valentine’s Day dedicated one of the city’s iconic cable cars to Bennett, whose “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” included a line about “the city where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.” He died at age 96 last summer. The song was an enormous hit and Bennett returned to the city often, even appearing with the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein when she was mayor to toast the rebuilt cable system in 1984. His statue is on the front lawn of the Fairmont San Francisco and a short street by the hotel is named for him. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has 42 cable cars of which four are dedicated to individuals, including baseball’s former center fielder Willie Mays, says Arne Hansen, superintendent of cable car vehicle maintenance. Car 53, built in 1907, was in the process of being restored after an accident when the idea came up to dedicate the car to Bennett.