Naomi Campbell Celebrates Birthday, In Restropect

The internationally famous supermodel Naomi Campbell celebrates turning 44.  Looking back at Naomi's life.
Born in South West London in 1970, Naomi Campbell was scouted as a model at the age of 15 and had graced the cover of UK Elle by the age of 16.

By the late 1980s she had firmly positioned herself as one of the world's top models, and was walking the catwalk for top designers including Versace.

One of the world's first "supermodels", Naomi was a member of the trio known as the "Trinity", made up of Naomi, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista.

Naomi often faced discrimination, but has spoken regularly of the support she received from Christy and Linda, quoting the pair as telling designers Dolce and Gabbana: "If you don't use Naomi, you don't get us."

In 1988 Naomi became the first black model to appear on the cover of French Vogue, and the following year became the first black model to appear on the September issue cover of American Vogue.

The defining moment of the supermodel era came in 1991 when Naomi walked down the catwalk arm-in-arm with Christy, Linda and Cindy Crawford as they sang Freedom '90. By the late 1990s Naomi had largely retired from catwalk modelling.

She began to branch out, with unsuccessful careers as an author and pop star, but was still heavily in demand with print modelling.

The statuesque beauty returned to the catwalk in 2007 for Dior's 60th anniversary show and appeared on several magazine covers.

In 2005, Naomi set up the Fashion for Relief charity in response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. In the ten years since it was founded, Fashion for Relief has raised over $4.5billion.

In 2013, Naomi announced she would serve as a host and judge on new modelling talent show, The Face. She took on the role in three different countries: the US, the UK, and Australia.