Iman doesn’t so much command attention, but rather envelops the room – in this case the lobby of New York City’s Mercer Hotel. With the ease of someone walking into their own house, the 64-year-old megamodel, businesswoman and philanthropist brings an immediate sense of warmth to the hyper-cool space.
This week, Iman became the third recipient of the Franca Sozzani Award – founded in memory of the late Vogue Italia editor-in-chief (who passed away in 2016), to recognise the artistic achievement and social commitment of women in the creative industries. Previous honourees are Salma Hayek in 2018 and Julianne Moore in 2017.
“I’m honoured to be a part of [Sozzani’s] legacy and to highlight what she stood for,” Iman tells , sipping an iced tea. “Franca used her platform to showcase, elevate and educate us about our society. She understood that fashion journalism and photography reflects who is represented and who is ignored. Who’s eliminated out of the images makes a big impact on a young girl growing up and what she thinks about herself. Franca was at the forefront of inclusivity and body positivity.”
The awards presentation took place at the Belmond Hotel Cipriani, on 27 August, hosted by Sozzani’s son Francesco Carrozzini and his wife Bee Shaffer. Carrozzini, who has known Iman for years, admits he first fell in love with her openness and receptiveness. “People, as they get older, get stubborn and have their own opinions and think they know better,” he explains. “[With Iman] I feel like I’m talking to someone much younger, with so much enthusiasm [and] intention.”
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With four decades in the fashion industry, Iman could easily impress with tales of Studio 54, backstage life at the 1980s Thierry Mugler shows, photo sessions with Herb Ritts, fittings with Yves Saint Laurent or anecdotes about her 24-year marriage to the late David Bowie (she is wearing a small gold “David” necklace when we meet). But she is much happier talking about her humanitarian work with The Children’s Defense Fund, Action Against Hunger and Raise Hope for Congo.
“It’s all about what you stand for at the end of the day, and what you do about it while you’re alive,” she says. “You have to choose wisely what you align yourself with. You can’t just give your name to a charity, you need to really be a part of it in person. When I say I’m going to be part of something, I want to be hands-on, to know the nitty-gritty and how I can helm something and make a difference.”
Iman has been drawn to philanthropy for years. Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, her gynecologist mother and diplomat father sought refugee status in Kenya in the early 1970s. “I was thinking about the future [even then], but very much in the moment. I was a refugee and left with nothing, so philanthropy has always been on my mind,” Iman explains. “The people that helped me when I was a refugee were from non-government organizations. I was 14 and I had never worked, but I spoke three languages. They got me work as a translator and helped me navigate how to survive.”
Iman went on to study political science at the University of Nairobi, where she was spotted, aged 20, by photographers Mirella Ricciardi and Peter Beard. An initial portfolio shot by Beard took Iman to New York, where she soon relocated and took the fashion world by storm. She graced countless magazine covers and became a go-to muse for the likes of Gianni Versace, Calvin Klein, Issey Miyake and Halston.
“I came with this enthusiasm to a country and an industry that took me in. I was at the height of all that is great about our industry. In terms of beauty, in terms of inclusivity, in terms of acceptance,” Iman remembers. “Then it completely twisted and changed. I was 21, 22 when I had hairdressers, makeup artists, at the same age as me dying of AIDS. We suddenly all became adults in the face of death.”
She goes on to speak about losses in later life. “All of us have someone in our lives who has died of disease,” she says. “I have my husband, I have my mother – both of them passed away too young [and within a few months of each other]. To see what we can actually do in our lifetime, for my kids, my grandkids, it’s very important.”
This year also marks the beginning of The Franca Sozzani Fund for Preventive Genomics at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard. The fund aims to support research into disease prevention, starting with hereditary forms of cancer and heart disease. It’s a cause that’s close to both Carrozzini and Iman, given Sozzani and Bowie’s respective battles with cancer.
“[Bowie] is someone like my mom who had everything at their fingertips to, in theory, save their life,” Carrozzini explains. “And yet, both David and my mom couldn’t be saved. The people we love live on, and we will use what happened to them as a legacy and a way to change the world.”
While Iman officially retired from modelling in 1989, she has remained firmly within the industry, as a force for change. In 1993 – long before it was de rigueur for models to double as businesswomen, and long before the likes of Rihanna and Pat McGrath debuted their own makeup lines for women of colour – Iman revolutionized the beauty industry with Iman Cosmetics, now a US$25-million-a-year business.
“When I started, it was out of the politics of beauty. They said to me ‘Why don’t you just create products [that are] only for black women?’ I was watching hip-hop videos and they didn’t have the colour separations that the fashion industry had – they featured Asian girls with dreadlocks and mixed race people. I knew that there was a new generation coming up, and Iman Cosmetics was for them. They saw the world in a different way than my generation, who were told that there was black and white and that’s what separates us.”
Two decades later, in 2013, she teamed up with fellow models Bethann Hardison and Naomi Campbell to launch the Diversity Coalition, fighting for diversity in fashion before the rest of the industry had really got on board. “Instead of saying ‘women of colour’, I call it ‘women with skin of colour’,” Iman adds. “That means [women] of the whole world.”
Over the years, she says, she’s realised that life isn’t about fitting in, but more about standing out and standing up for what’s important. “All the things that in my childhood I thought I wanted, now I don’t! Everyone my daughter’s age wants to be just like everybody else. Then you grow up and you say, fuck everybody, I don’t want to fit in with them!”
On the subject of Lexi, her 19-year-old daughter with Bowie, she says, “I’m still learning patience. Lexi wanted to leave tonight with my Murakami white bag that Marc Jacobs did for Louis Vuitton. It’s white; it’s going to rain. I said to her, ‘Don’t touch it!’”
Her advice for the next generation? “I do believe in one gimmick – I’m not going to say drink a lot of water, none of that bullshit,” she says with a giggle, before dramatically lowering her voice to a whisper. “You don’t have to be out there all the time. There is power in a little bit of mystery. Keep a little bit to yourself. Let them want more.”