Mario Sorrenti Flashes Anok, Imaan, Kendall and Naomi for V Magazine #130 in 'Supernova Summer'

As the world emerges from COVID-quarantine, V Magazine #130 launches a sizzling swimsuit season with ‘Supernova Summer’. Four mega-watt women Anok Yai, Imaan Hammam, Kendall Jenner and Naomi Campbell wear season-ready swimwear and Cartier jewelry styled by George Cortina. Mario Sorrenti is behind the lens with creative direction by Stephan Gan./ Photo and bookings direction by Goran Macura

Anok Yai

Supermodel Queen Iman Abdulmajid interviews Anok Yai about her skyrocketing modeling career, life on social media and taking responsibility for Black representation in fashion. They begin:

Iman Abdulmajid: I am beyond honored to be interviewing you.

Anok Yai: I am so excited that you’re interviewing me. I’ve always looked up to you and take so much inspiration from you and the women of your time, so I want to thank you for paving the way for us younger Black models.

Yai’s rise was an incredible elevator rise, and she reflects on being terrified waiting to open the Prada show within months of her Instagram discover. (See our Sunday review of Anok’s historical rise.) The 23-year-old teases us with references to her entrepreneurship and her art, with the admission that she hopes to release her paintings towards the end of 2021.

AOC has been totally committed to the South Sudanese models from day one — given my own women’s rights activism in Kartoum, Sudan. Anok shares a story that never could have magerialized even five years ago.

When I first arrived to the world of fashion, I remember specifically, there was one day when I was backstage, and I heard someone speaking Dinka! I went looking for that voice, and I saw a group of younger South Sudanese girls. It was so crazy to think that so many girls of my skin color and of my tribe were there, doing this one show. There’s no more tokens. It’s not just one Black model. And that’s when I noticed, and I was like, ‘Yeah. Shit is changing.’

Anok has a lovely expansiveness about her spirit, when she expresses the observation “Whenever I see someone talented, and people don’t appreciate their art, I’m like, ‘Let’s work together. I’ll bring you up with me and we can do this together.” Hers is an old soul talking — a matriarch of her tribe.

Anok and Iman rival each other for who can be the most gracious to the other. Iman concludes the interview saing: “Well, I’m very proud and honored to be interviewing you. I can’t wait to see your work.”

Anok’s smile-worthy response is one we can all appreciate: “Thank you so much. It’s been an honor to speak to you. I’m about to call my mom; she’s gonna lose her mind when I tell her about this.”

Kendall Jenner

Top talent and model Cara Delevingne reflects on her special friendship with Kendall Jenner, the only one of the V Magazine #130 supernovas not interviewed. Both Cara and Kendall are known to be shy — or reserved — although in different ways, says Delevingne, who now sees Jenner’s shyness as a “guarded sensibility.” And for good reason, we might add.

The two met in 2014 sharing a car from a Chanel show in Paris to a LOVE magazine shoot. Later in the day, the they ran around Paris escaping the paparazzi, starting out at the Crazy Horse for what would become one of those Parisian nights that so many of us have tucked away in our memories. It’s not the only night the twosome tore up a city, and I absolutely must Google for an image of Cara and Kendall dressed as a woolly mammoth. Kendall was the front and Kendall the back — now that is quite a tale!!!

Naomi Campbell

Naomi Campbell is interviewed by V Magazine print editor Czar Van Gaal about navigating fashion at age 50, fashion’s growing demand for diversity, and her determination to insure a permanent future demand for Black models.

Most of us consider Naomi to be a total control, alpha woman but she swears that for the most part, she shoots on trust and avoids the monitor because “it actually [throws] me off.”. . . “So, I just trust...I trust you, I trust Mario, I trust the vibe and that’s how I work: on trust.”

Naomi is always quick to clarify that only time will convince her that the changes in diversity in fashion are permanent, whether the focus is models, photographers, stylists and beyond to the C-suite. We saw them slip away before. Actually in the late 70s and again in the late 90s. But Campbell is increasingly positive about the commitments to diversity in the industry. Her commitment to her own tribe will always be a top priority, but in her interview Campbell speaks to the general topic of models — all models — and their place in the fashion-world hierarchy.

I feel like the girls [today] are creative, they’re risk-takers, and they’re clear in what they want in their careers. But what I want to see in our business is that we models have a little bit more ownership [because] we have none. With this whole new way of content [creation], that has to change so that we [have ownership] as well. I think it can be done. It’s not impossible. We’ve seen it done with music and art; we can do it with fashion.

Imaan Hammam

Writer Derek Blasberg chats up rising star model Imaan Hammam, at home in Amsterdam for Ramadan.Asked to describe herself as a child in one word, Hammam chooses “bold” before adding another descriptor that Cara Delevigne also referenced about her relationship with Kendall Jenner: “always chasing adventure.”

Blassberg is so full of himself, asking Imaan “Apart from me, of course, who is your favorite writer?” Her answer is perfect: “Kahlil Gibran or Rumi.” Asked about her mentors, the beauty who is happy to have kept her curls, names Bethann Hardison, Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, and Iman (who interviews Anok Yai above.)