What Was Really Behind The Shade Between Naomi Campbell, Anna Wintour

As Fashion Week nears, two of the industry’s most notable figures — Naomi Campbell and Anna Wintour — got into it. And it should come as no surprise to anyone who knows anything about the fashion world.

Look no further than your television to see just how notoriously petty the fashion industry can be. With shows like “Fashion Police,” What Not to Wear,” and “Fashion Queens” becoming cult classics over the last two decades, one can expect a certain level of sass and shade when it comes to matters of style.

As it relates to Campbell and Wintour specifically, their relationship has been relatively positive since their initial collab back in 1989, when Wintour fought to put Campbell on the September issue of American Vogue Magazine. Thanks to that choice, the two made history as the Campbell became the first Black model in the magazine’s history to be on the cover of the most important issue.

And while the supermodel and Wintour have had their fair share of detractors — Campbell for her “diva” behavior and Wintour for her questionable treatment of Black staffers, Black talent and others in the industry — the duo have been otherwise publicly cordial with each other.

Well, at least, that was the case until now.

When Wintour was selected to present the Fashion Icon Award to the supermodel during Harlem’s Fashion Row Fashion Show and Style Awards this week, she took a beat to shade Campbell and accused her of being late to the event.

“I am a very punctual person, and I have the honor of presenting tonight to someone who is often late,” Wintour said before eventually leaving the function entirely to head to the U.S. Open.

Once Campbell arrived and went onstage to accept the honor, she took a moment to throw shade back at Wintour saying: “I want to say this: everything is meant to work out the way it’s meant to work out. It wasn’t my choice to have the other lady, I’d much rather have this.”

In what was perhaps the biggest plot twist of the night, a source close to Campbell told TMZ after the fact that the model wasn’t late at all and had actually arrived at the time she was told to by the event producers. It was due to Wintour’s desire to go to the U.S. Open that she ended up pushing up Campbell’s presentation slot to an earlier time than originally scheduled.

See when you do clownery? This is why you don’t try to throw shade unless you can back it up with facts and truth. Hopefully the pettiness will stop here because there truly is only room for fun shade.

The rest of that stuff — especially when its unwarranted — should be left backstage and not present on the runway or anywhere else. Let’s focus on the looks and pray the rest of Fashion Week can continue to go off without a hitch.