Naomi Campbell introduced she’s skipping the 2025 Met Gala amid hypothesis of an ongoing rift with the occasion’s organizer, Anna Wintour.
“Congratulations to Anna Wintour, the good designers, the devoted Met Gala staff, and gorgeous attendees of tonight’s extraordinary celebration,” the supermodel wrote through Instagram on Monday.
“I’ve to say, what good timing for the ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Type’ theme. It actually celebrates how Black dandyism has formed trend and the way trend has been a means for Black folks to precise who they’re and declare their energy.”
Campbell went on to acknowledge she was “honored” to be invited, however nonetheless “regretfully can’t make it.”
She additionally paid tribute to late stylist André Leon Talley, who handed away in 2022.
“Though I’m not there in particular person, I’m with you all in spirit, carried by the legacy of my beloved pal, the late Andre Leon Talley,” Campbell, 54, continued.
“His commanding presence, imaginative and prescient and perception that trend is artwork helped form what the Met Gala is presenting tonight. I can’t wait to see how everybody mixes African and European fashion traditions on these well-known steps tonight! The creativity shall be wonderful.”
Campbell’s announcement comes simply months after a frosty public trade with the famed Vogue editor-in-chief.
In September, Wintour known as out the fashion icon for being “late” to the seventeenth Trend Row Trend Present and Type Awards in Harlem, NY.
“I’m a really punctual particular person, and I’ve the respect of presenting tonight to somebody who is usually late,” Wintour mentioned when presenting the Trend Icon Award to Campbell.
Wintour, 75, was mentioned to have left instantly after her speech — however Campbell threw a bit of shade again after Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Samira Nasr gave a second introduction.
“It’s so vital that I’m right here at present, and I’m honored to be right here in Harlem,” Campbell mentioned.
“All the pieces’s going to work out the way in which it’s going to work out. It wasn’t my option to have the opposite lady,” the mother of two confessed, referring to Wintour.
“I’d a lot moderately have this,” she mentioned, motioning towards Nasr.
Campbell addressed gasps from the viewers by saying she’s “unapologetically truthful.”
Nonetheless, elsewhere in her speech the longtime runway mannequin thanked Wintour for her affect on Campbell’s epic profession in trend.
“We should nonetheless say thanks to Anna Wintour, as she did take the time to return right here and provides me the award despite the fact that I wasn’t right here,” Campbell mentioned partially.
“So thanks, Anna Wintour, to your help in my profession from 1987, assembly a younger black lady from South London in British Vogue workplaces and taking an opportunity in giving me a shoot,” she continued.
“And so, I thanks to your affect and your persevering with help in pushing trend ahead additionally.”
Campbell’s absence from the occasion comes after a whopping 17 appearances all through the years. She arrived at her first Met Gala purple carpet in 1990 in a shocking strapless silver robe as a visitor of Gianna Versace.
