WEBVTT - Iman: Fashion Stories and Breaking Boundaries 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:10.799 Hi everyone, I'm Rachel Zoe and you're listening to Climbing 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:14.120 in Heels for your weekly dose of glamour, inspiration and 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.720 of course fun. In honor fashion Month coming to an end, 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.000 I'm throwing it back and paying tribute to one of 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:22.720 my all time favorite fashion icons. 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:23.560 Emon. 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.240 Emon has truly pushed the boundaries of the fashion industry 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.080 by staying true to herself and what she believes in. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.400 She is just the most iconic and gorgeous woman, and 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:36.960 I am so lucky to call her a friend. So 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:38.440 let's jump right in. 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.520 Hi darling, Oh my god, I miss you so much. 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:45.239 How are you? How are you? 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:47.080 I'm so good? How are you? 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.080 I'm okay, I'm how's the kids? 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.720 They're so good? They're so bad. I mean there are 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:58.160 eleven and eight. I can't believe it. How are yours? 0:00:58.400 --> 0:00:59.240 Big? Old? 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:04.200 Yeah, I'm My kids are. 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:08.320 Old and they are older, and I have three grandchildren. 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.000 I cannot believe you have grandchildren? 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:11.959 Yes? 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:15.120 Do they call you grandma or do you have another name? 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:16.000 Nana? 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.839 I'm so happy to see you. You look stunning. 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:22.200 Oh thank you? 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:23.560 I do not Oh my. 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:28.040 God, you so I started this podcast Climbing in Heels 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:32.720 because there are so many incredible superwomen in my life 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:37.080 that I've met along my journey, in my life and 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:41.000 in my career, and you have always stood out as 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:51.280 just one of the most elegant, beautiful souls, just beyond 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:55.320 your actual physical beauty. You've just always been this ray 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:59.200 of light in those crazy rooms in my life. And 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:01.160 you know what I'm taught talking about when you walk 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.760 into those rooms and it's crazy, and I would always 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:09.600 feel very lost and very small and very you know, intimidated, 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:15.880 And you were just always this strikingly tall, beautiful but 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:21.080 kind and friendly and still funny, always funny person in 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:24.520 my life. And so before I was getting on, I 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.400 was I was thinking about your journey and what an 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:30.960 incredible journey it's been. And I mean, it would take 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.280 us years to get through that, but I do want 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.840 to talk about because everybody knows who you are. Everybody 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:44.600 knows Emon the Queen, and so for my listeners, I 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.960 think it's very important to know, you know. I call 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:52.960 this podcast Climbing and Heels because I think that so 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.200 many of the women I know that get to where 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.080 they are, they don't sacrifice being a woman for it. 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:02.160 They don't sacrifice embracing their beauty and femininity as a 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:07.119 woman and using their superpowers in various ways. And you're 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:09.000 such a good example of that. And so what I 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.519 want to go to is just a little bit from 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:16.200 the beginning of like who were you as this child? 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:18.160 Were you always this person that was like I want 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:19.799 to do a million things in my life, I need 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:21.760 to do this, this is or were you just like chill? 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:25.359 I can't imagine that you were, but please tell me yes, 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:26.280 person of. 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:29.880 All, as you said, I never would have thought of 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:32.640 you when you walk into a room that you were small. 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:38.320 You are not a small personality. That's a bad way. 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:42.760 So I don't know what you're talking about. Bed, you 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.840 own the room, money you walk in regards regardless of 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:53.600 how high your heels were, my journey, really it was 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:58.440 I never I've never envisioned myself of where my trajectory 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:03.440 or journey took me. I was always intending to major 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:06.560 in political science and follow the footsteps of my father, 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.600 who was an ambassador, so I was more into politics. 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.720 I've never seen fashion magazines, never board heels or make 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:17.120 up way before I came to the United States, So 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:22.880 I was an ambassador's daughter for many years, and then 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:27.440 in nineteen sixty nine, my country, Somalia, had had a 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:31.760 military regime took over and all the embassies were closed 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.599 and we all came back home and a lot of 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.960 people would either put in prison or execute it. 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.080 So my parents decided in the middle of the nineteen. 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:44.440 Nineteen seventy two that we were going to flee the country, 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:47.800 and so they put us in a vain and just 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:52.359 drove to the border of Kenya and then we crossed 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.320 over by vote, just with the clothes on our back 0:04:55.440 --> 0:05:00.760 and instantly became refugees. So when I I arrived in 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:02.120 any of that was my. 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:04.240 Lot in life. All I was trying to do was 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:06.240 actually trying to get a. 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:10.360 Scholarship to finish the university. And so I had no 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:13.520 no recollection of ever seeing a fashion. 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:14.359 Magazine in my life. 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:16.840 And one day while I was walking down the street 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:18.400 on my. 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.440 Way from one job to another. 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:24.400 And Peter beer to the photographer, stopped me in the 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:28.840 street and asked me if I had ever been photographed. 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:30.520 So I had no idea what he was trying to 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:32.480 talk about. I thought he was trying to pick. 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.560 Me up, and I said, you're probably like, huh, handsome 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.160 man asking to take my picture. 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:37.760 Interesting. 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:43.159 Yeah, and so he he said to me the magic word. 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:48.440 He said, I will pay you and I said, well 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:50.159 how much? He said, well, how much do you need? 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.640 And I said it's eight thousand dollars. That was the 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.599 question for one year and he said, okay, I'll pay you. 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.080 And he took pictures of me just and. 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:02.760 I had a friend with me, and so he took 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.120 these pictures of me and then I thought I'll never 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:10.719 see him again. And three months later I didn't have 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:13.599 our staying at the in campus at the university, I 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:14.600 didn't have a phone. 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.599 So he had a friend of mine who worked at Pannan. 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:18.480 This is how. 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:21.520 My god. 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.719 He called her and told her to let me know 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:26.520 that he wants to talk to me. So I went 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:30.120 there to her office the next day and it was Wilhelmina, 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:34.120 who owned Wilhelmina agency agency and him on the phone 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:37.800 and they both said, me saw the pictures. She said, 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.320 she saw the pictures. She's going to send me a ticket. 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.320 I could become a big model. And I had no 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.000 idea what they were talking about. And the only thing 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:48.760 I asked for was a return ticket back home if 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.080 I didn't have if I didn't want to stay, and 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:53.240 I still have the ticket. 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.599 Oh my god, I bet you do. 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:00.279 Yes, I do, I do, And so I give into 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:01.520 the United States and. 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:05.799 On my Thursday in New York, I was working for vote. 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:10.400 That's the sickest thing ever. Yeah, but it just, honestly, 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:14.040 it just shows that you were just so smart and 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:18.640 clever about how you conducted yourself in life, no matter 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:22.080 what like meaning you were. You were living in a 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.800 not ideal situation, right, I mean you left with nothing 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.360 but the clothes in your back, basically starting your life. 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:30.040 So how old were you when you came to New York. 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.200 I was barely nineteen, barely nineteen, barely nineteen. 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:38.920 Yeah, but I thought I was just really checking out 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.840 what they were talking about the industry. I had no 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.880 intention of actually staying. And then when things happened for me, 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:48.840 it was an opportunity for me to be able to 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:52.840 send my brothers and sisters so they can finish their education, yeah, 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:54.320 and take care of my parents. 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.920 So that's what really the industry has, you know, was 0:07:58.000 --> 0:07:59.760 helpful to me, sure. 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:03.040 But objectory of my life completely changed, you know, in 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.880 just one instant of being photographed by. 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.560 Peter, and I think you know, to some extent that 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:12.280 still happens now. I feel like, right, I mean it's 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:16.960 such a massive conversation, but I mean you broke down endless, 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:18.760 countless walls in the modeling industry. 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:20.120 You were so. 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.600 Much more than like a beautiful model. It was sort 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:25.880 of like emon, right, It was sort of like the 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.880 one word, the one name, the like that, and you 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.120 really just stood out because I what's funny is what 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.439 I remember so well, of course, is what you wore. 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:42.080 You know, you know, this sort of like model off 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.360 duty look of like the jeans and T shirts and 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:45.400 sneakers and whatever. 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:47.439 I don't have any image of you in that. 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:51.560 I have images of you and like Halston, Bob Mackie, 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.000 like I guess one of my questions is to you 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:56.360 is like were you obsessed with it? 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.040 Were you loving it? Were you living for the sort 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.240 of fashion of it? Were you like? 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:02.880 It just seems to me that you had such a 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:05.040 deep love and still do to this day. And look 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:07.000 at you right now, You're not in jeans and a 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.240 T shirt. 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.840 But no, I was not obsessed with it because I 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:13.280 was learning on the job. 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:17.000 But what what it opened the doors for me? 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:22.240 It is things that regular people are not don't experience. 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:27.240 I mean, my first walk on the runway was for Halston, right, 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:28.400 and I've never. 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:30.199 Forget when I went to see him in his. 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:36.920 Massive Olympic Tower studio with all the mirrors everywhere, and 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.160 he had an ever present cigarette in his hand and 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:41.720 a hand in his pocket. 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.679 And a turtlekneck and turtlet, but a hand in his pocket, 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:46.360 even although he was in his office. 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:55.040 He was almost posy, exactly exactly, and he said to me, Darling, 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.960 can you walk? I said, how the f do you 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:06.120 think I got here? But he said, Okay, I know 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:09.920 you just came from Africa, but walking here is different 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:14.120 than walking out the street. So and that was the 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.280 first time I even learned about the world walking in 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:19.719 our industry, what it means that it doesn't. 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:20.720 Mean just walking down the street. 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:25.720 Yeah, so yeah, and so you're exposed to that. But 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:31.080 really the level of understanding the fashion industry and its 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:36.199 designers came to me when one season some Lavan asked 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.320 me to be his muse for Thekuturu collection. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.080 You realize that my whole insights are collapsing as you 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.360 say this, right, this is literally like it's it's almost 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.240 like you're singing this song to me of dreams. Okay, 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.679 it was like Halston walking into a studio and then 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:54.800 and it. 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:57.960 Was really first of all, I was clueless what amuse meant? 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:00.720 So I thought there were like, there would be lots 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:03.720 of girls, other girls, but it was only me. And 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:08.200 he literally had bolts of fabric that he cut on 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.760 my body. He was creating the collection as. 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:13.559 I was standing right there. And when he. 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.320 Finished, the collection was called The African Queen and David 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:21.280 Bailey took the pictures and you know that, So you 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:27.160 had that level of couture collections and understanding these colorless 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:30.920 and things and you know, jewelry. 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:34.360 And amazing, amazing hyper environment. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.840 And then cut to Terry Mugler and Claude Montana and 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:44.560 John Cabot here who was the three Los von in Paris, 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:45.640 and then he. 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.959 Became the muse of Terry Mugler, who was like an. 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:55.679 Ng M film director because all his shows looked like. 0:11:54.240 --> 0:12:00.400 Like scenes from Seems exactly exactly. So you know, so 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:01.120 there is. 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:05.080 That experience and what you have in fashion is that 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:07.960 we literally I used to call it literally the circus 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.640 because you know, we'll go to Paris and the tents 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:12.280 will blow up. 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:17.280 Yeah, yes it's true. 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:18.000 And we will be there and doing all kinds of 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.120 crazy fashions and the tents come back down and we 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:24.640 moved onto another city. So it's like really running away 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:26.440 with the circles being with fashion. 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:28.040 I need to put that on a T shirt. 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:30.679 So, I mean, you know, I always like to know 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.400 what that moment that changed your life and your career was. 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.320 I mean, it would obviously be the Peter Bard moment, right, 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:39.719 I mean, but there was probably many. 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.760 Yes, there were many, but that was really you know, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.080 that that opened the door. And then there were like 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:50.360 the designers obviously who from the Givangis to the ifs 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.199 on alone who used lots of sixty percent of their 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:57.200 cabine on runway with black models of Asian models. So 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:04.360 you had really at that time, really had through inclusivity. Yeah, 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:08.199 not by world, but really existed, right. But for me 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:09.920 as my trajectory. 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.959 What changes was really becoming used to uh to Terry. 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.920 Mugler, because I remember every shows that I would go 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.280 and you know, as a black model, most of the 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.720 design most of the hairdressers didn't know how. 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:23.480 To do with our hair. 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:27.680 So immediately they just just pull it back in a shoon, right. 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.120 So Terry Mugler was the first person who said, you know, 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.199 think of your craziest dreams and we'll go for it. 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:39.160 And it's for the first time where I met a hairdresser, 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.080 a black hairdresser in New York who did hair extensions, 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.520 and she did the hair extensions, and I arrived in Paris, 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:48.240 and you would think that they have so seen me 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.720 in a different light because now, all of a sudden, 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.240 my head could be straight, it would be curly, it could. 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:58.120 Be an afroc, you know. So that completely changed. 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.960 The trajectory of my real bresiness because all of a 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.360 sudden we were seen in a different blood. 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:08.360 That's so interesting. And then I imagine that the same 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:12.880 thing probably happened with makeup, yep, because that's something you 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.560 and I have talked about that And I remember when 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.880 you launched your makeup and you said, I needed to 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:22.520 make a line of makeup for us because nobody at 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:25.760 the shows was able to match your skin tone to 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.520 the foundation and da da da, And so tell me 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:32.200 about that, because I think that is so incredibly important 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:34.720 to know and I think for everyone to really understand. 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:37.720 Yeah, exactly because nowa there's a lot of young people 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.800 are really letting in an environment where fency exists, you know, 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:45.840 so they don't know where actually this could have come from. Yes, 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:49.320 and as lovely as Lehanna has invented that, there were 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:53.239 other smaller companies before I started that they were trying 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.840 to do, but there was not really a marketplace for us. 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.560 But in nineteen seventy five, my first job when I 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:04.080 arrived was American Vogue, and the shoot there was a 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:08.040 Caucasian model and I and it was with Arthur Elbert, 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.520 and there was a makeup artist and he started doing 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:16.240 the white girl's makeup, and then when he came to 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:20.040 my turn, he asked me a very perplexing question because 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.200 I knew it was not lost on me that he 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:24.360 did not ask that question to the other girl, And 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:26.000 he said, did you bring your own foundation? 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:27.920 Because he had nothing for me. 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.560 So he started mixing products and put it on my face, 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.640 and when I looked in the mirror, I looked gray. 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.320 And so I thought after that shoot, I thought, if 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:40.560 I survived this shoot, I'm going to find out some 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:42.000 kind of a way that I. 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.600 Can get something in the marketplace and mix a product 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:47.560 that I can use and take it. 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:49.960 With me to the shoots because they don't have it. 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:55.200 And just the gods of fashion was looking after me. 0:15:55.600 --> 0:16:00.320 Pictures in black and white, and black and white. It's 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:01.960 multitude of sins. 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:07.160 Oh my god. Okay. 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:10.400 So I went and bought all these foundations that I found, 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:12.120 things that have a little bit of a tent, and 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.200 I mixed it and I had the original selfish the 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:19.760 polaroid and I'll put the makeup on and I'll take 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.080 I'll take a picture of myself just to see it. 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.800 How will it translate it into photography? 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:27.200 Because at the end of the day, as a model, 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:28.640 image is my parents. 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.480 Nobody cares about how I really is. How do I 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:35.480 do I translate into photographs? And I wanted to have 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:37.160 some kind of a control of that. 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:41.320 So I never went to a job without having something 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:45.119 in my pocket. And when I started doing the runways 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:49.080 and I would be doing my makeup, every black marble 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:51.960 would come to me and she says, let me see 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:53.680 what you have? Can I use some of yous? 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.680 Wow? And so from there the. 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:01.600 Seed of creating Imaan Cosmetics was in my head. And 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.800 when I stopped modeling in nineteen eighty nine I created 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:06.119 in nineteen ninety forty nine. 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:06.680 Pluses. 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:11.119 Wow, Yes, it's weird, though I don't I feel like 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:15.200 you still model? Yes, I mean I feel like you're 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:17.240 still modeled. Like, what do you mean you're still modeling? 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:18.760 You did not stop in eighty nine? 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.520 What? Let me tell you. In nineteen eighty nine, my 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:23.159 last show was for. 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:28.240 Thierry Millblair, his first Cotol collection, and I said bye, 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:30.640 and I told everybody. 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:31.760 That was that was my last show. 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:35.040 And I remember because it was very poignant and very sweet. 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:38.480 All the photographers in the marsh pat came on the 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.879 stage and took the last picture with me. I have 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:44.840 to tell you, I have not been to a fashion 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:46.800 show since nineteen eighty nine. 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:50.760 No, you haven't been to one, or you haven't walked 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:51.120 in one. 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:53.199 I have not walked in one, and I have not 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:56.160 been in what well, if you think. 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.160 About it, I've worked with mostly all the designers and 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.879 so who So I'm I'm going to go to go. 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:05.720 There's no way that you have not been asked four 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:07.639 hundred times to walk a show, not. 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:09.400 Like as recent as last. 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.480 I was gonna say, but I don't. 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:23.360 Now a word from our sponsor that is real. It's 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:24.720 actually really. 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:30.080 Incredible because how many times do icons retire and then 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.000 like a month later they're like, just kidding, just kidding, 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:35.159 I'm coming back. And I feel like I've seen it 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:39.680 with countless like singers and actors, and everyone's like, I'm done, 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:40.000 I'm done. 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:43.480 I'm quitting. I'm quitting, even like Tom Brady quitting. Just kidding. 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:45.919 But but he's going to be in trouble with if 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:46.719 he doesn't keep up. 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:47.400 I know it. 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:55.920 Yeah, it's listen, yes, okay, Emon Cosmetics. 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:58.040 It's amazing, it's beautiful. 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.920 You've done I feel like hundreds of thousands of things 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.280 because I just feel like you're such this large presence 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.119 and you're you have so much to say about things. 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:13.800 You know. I've written two books, you know, very successful books. 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.119 One was on beauty and was called The Beauty of Color, 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:19.600 and it was the ultimate guy for skin of color. 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:22.040 And and it was not just for black women, it 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.600 was also for latinis because I built my forward and 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:25.960 I had. 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.080 Aba Mendez and you know Jay Jagg and you know. 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:33.680 Everybody under this under that umbrella as a global community 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:36.120 and as beauty that is not the. 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:37.320 Standard of just white. 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:40.040 And then I wrote a book called I Am in Man, 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:44.120 which was photography and and and my story about how 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:46.000 I from my where I came. 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:47.280 From doing this industry. 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:50.760 Uh and you know, and then during COVID, I was 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:55.480 contacted by YouTube and these directors with them and they. 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.960 Were going to They wanted to talk to me about. 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:01.679 A doggy series that called Supreme Models, which was based 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:05.240 on a book called Supreme Models, which is black models 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:09.800 who revolutionized fashion industry. So I said to them, you know, 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.240 I said to them, what are you bringing to the 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:13.640 table that has not been. 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.760 Said about black beauty and black models? 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.280 And they said, are you aware that there has never 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.680 been a documentary on black beauty or black marbles, which 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:26.280 was surprising to me at twenty twenty one that there 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.119 has nothing else existence. So that's how I came on 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.520 board and we did the dog series and it is 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.520 really beautiful and it is not more about the trials 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.120 and tribulations, although we do talk about that, but it's 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:44.280 more about the joy and celebration of black beauty and 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:50.240 what that singularly black fashion model, or how she was 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:54.959 responsible for cultural changes that has been going through in 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:57.160 our industry from black is beautiful in. 0:20:57.080 --> 0:20:58.800 The nineteen sixties till now. 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:01.399 So that's the whole all history of black mons and 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.240 black culture and black beauty till now. 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:05.399 What's going on? 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:07.920 And Zendia is in there? Who I. 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:10.400 She is? 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:12.400 How impressed are you with her? 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:14.840 I'm beyond she is. 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:16.240 She's mind boggling. 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:19.480 Yeah, more important than how young she is. 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:21.199 It's actually unreal. 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:28.320 She's so she's so young, and she's so gifted, and 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:35.600 she's so she's so clear, like even just when I've 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:39.439 seen her win countless awards in person and from afar, 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:42.359