Depending on how you see things, Naomi Campbell is either a monster or the ultimate personification of #GOALS. When tasked with the unglamorous task of community service, the Machiavellian supermodel turned it into one of the most audacious stunts a celebrity has pulled in modern times.
A little background. Campbell's favorite pair of jeans went missing. She suspected her maid had something to do with it and when the poor woman couldn't manifest the dream denim, Naomi hurled a cellphone at her. Having run afoul of the law--yet again!--she was sentenced to what barely amasses to a slap on the wrist: a week of cleaning up at a New York City sanitation garage.
Boy George had done some community service at the same garage months before for basically narcing on himself, and the press had a field day at the expense of the sad, bald man who had once coyly implored, "Do you really want to hurt me?" Naomi was not going out like that.
Each day of her community service, Ms. Campbell came with a LQQK, her work boots delicately slung over her designer shoulders. And her service would be done behind closed doors.
On the final day, almost exactly nine years ago, Naomi stepped out of the Manhattan District 3 Garage at Pier 36 in a resplendent silver gown from good friends Dolce & Gabbana--belted severely at the waist--waving at the crowd of cheering paparazzi (who had been feeding frantically all week as hyena are wont to do) and into a fucking Rolls Royce for other good friend Elton John's 60th birthday party.
Months later, she appeared on the cover of W Magazine, recounting her community service, and generally slaying in an accompanying spread shot by Steven Klein:
She would later say of the experience, to Brit fashion mag Grazia Daily:
[Grazia]: But you wore couture every day, right?
[Naomi Campbell]: Yep! Why shouldn't I have done? Why should they expect me to go looking bedraggled or something?
G: When did you decide to dress like that?
N: I didn't, it wasn't planned at all. I decided on the day and I still gave them what they wanted, it didn't stop me from doing what I had to do though.
And that's how it's done, children. Turning a potential disaster into a triumph over fairness, celebrity shame and schadenfreude, and life itself. Olivia Pope couldn't have pulled it off better herself. After this, Naomi Campbell became simply the best. Or the worst. Again, depending on how you see things.
