Water shoes go from the rivers
to city streets. Page 5.
Sandals Step Up
VIA MERRELLTHURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020 D1
NFASHION BEAUTY NIGHTLIFE
2 DESIGNER D.I.Y.Rick Owens embroiders a
handkerchief. BY GUY TREBAY
2 EVERYTHING MUST GOLong Tall Sally will shut down
after 44 years. BY JESSICA TESTA6 STEALTH ART, WITH FLOWERS
‘Who isn’t looking for a little
joy?’ BY JESSICA SHAW
2 CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK
The message in the president’s
untied tie.BY VANESSA FRIEDMAN
There are so many Naomi Campbells, you
never know which you will get.
There is goddess Naomi, whose verified
superpowers (ask any eyewitness) include
an ability to part seas of people and alter the
electrical charge in a room. There are cover
girl Naomi, campaign Naomi and runway
Naomi, whose catwalk strut is unlikely to
ever be outclassed. There is vulnerable Na-
omi, the unexpectedly bashful human who
first appeared on the modeling scene at the
tender age of 15.
There is activist Naomi, who called Nel-
son Mandela Granddad, and there is party
girl Naomi, who wears a string of playboy
and oligarch heads strung from her belt.
There is golden-hearted Naomi who “would
give you the Prada off her back,” as an old
friend recently noted. And there is cold-
hearted Naomi who, when a close friend
needed funds for heroin rehab, turned her
back.
“Fighting on arrival, fighting for sur-
vival,” the modeling agent Bethann Hardi-
son, Ms. Campbell’s lifelong guide and pro-
tector, once said of her.
And despite struggles with the race-
based inequalities too long unchecked in
fashion, Ms. Campbell has not only re-
mained in the public eye for three decades
— light-years in the modeling business —
but has also reinvented herself, after 50
years on earth, as a digital media phenom-
enon.
Her show, “Being Naomi,” is both vacant
and mesmerizing, almost Warholian level,
and a canny master class for the aspiring
brand-building narcissist.
Ms. Campbell, who was born in London
and recently turned 50, has kept busy dur-
ing and beyond lockdown at a friend’s house
in Los Angeles. She shares her daily work-
outs with the Ocho System founder Joe
Holder on Instagram, attends virtual recov-
ery meetings, has become the first face of
the Pat McGrath Labs makeup line and
tapes “No Filter” interviews with old
friends and colleagues like Sharon Stone,
Marc Jacobs and Cindy Crawford. Just this
week she conducted a disarmingly frank
beauty tutorial for Vogue’s YouTube
channel.
Reached by phone on a Friday evening in
early June, Ms. Campbell talked about what
it is like to be Naomi.11 Things
About
Naomi
Campbell
She is busier than
ever, and a lot more
serene than you
might expect.
Naomi Campbell, who has kept busy during
and beyond lockdown at a friend’s house
in Los Angeles, via FaceTime.By GUY TREBAYCONTINUED ON PAGE D3GIONCARLO VALENTINE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESWhen Greg Glassman resigned this month
as chief executive of CrossFit, excoriated
for comments about George Floyd’s death
on Twitter and in a Zoom meeting, people
who have worked there were surprised his
downfall was tied to accusations of racism.
They had assumed the reason would be rou-
tine and rampant sexual harassment.
Interviews with eight former employees,
and four CrossFit athletes with strong ties
to the company, reveal a management
culture rife with overt and vulgar talk about
women: their bodies; how much male em-
ployees, primarily Mr. Glassman, would
like to have sex with them; and how lucky
the women should feel to have his rabid
interest.
According to the dozen interviewed, Mr.Changing of the Guard at CrossFit
A plan to sell the company is
announced amid reports of
sexism and other mistreatment.
By KATHERINE ROSMANGreg Glassman, the former chief executive of CrossFit, at an event in Brooklyn in 2013. CONTINUED ON PAGE D4
VICTOR J. BLUE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES