Naomi Campbell first met Kate Moss on a Los Angeles photoshoot in 1992. “It was a brief meeting, but I remember her being strikingly quiet, she hardly spoke,” Campbell said in 2014. “The other striking thing, obviously, was her beautiful face. I knew she was special from the first minute I saw her.” The careers of these south London supermodels have since run in parallel, with throwback photos of their early days of fame now iconized on Instagram accounts with names like @90sanxiety and @shesvague.
And so: Moss was always going to be among the first to step foot into Campbell’s blockbuster retrospective at the V&A Museum in London. (She probably saw most of the pieces exhibited–among them slashed knit Alaïa dresses, the exact Vivienne Westwood fall 1993 look that precipitated Campbell’s now-iconic catwalk tumble, and Marc Jacobs’s short-lived designs for Perry Ellis–the first time around.) Campbell wore a stack of Bulgari haute joaillerie Serpenti necklaces with a tailored Boss dress which had been slit to reveal those world-famous legs, while Moss wore an aqueous slip–of course–with a cropped tuxedo jacket.
The duo–who refer to themselves as “wagons” on account of their hedonistic behavior in the ’90s and ’00s–were accompanied by several peers past and present: including Daphne Guinness, Sarah Burton, Andreas Kronthaler, Grace Jones, Law Roach, and Adwoa Aboah. “To stand in front of my wardrobe is a humbling experience,” Campbell said. “Vivid memories replay bygone conversations with the legendary designers who were among my closest friends and collaborators. “I hope you will get to know the love stories behind the clothes.” Perhaps Naomi Campbell’s greatest romance is that she shares with Kate Moss.