Blazing a trail for @the_real_iman is standard operating procedure, but the supermodel, businesswoman, and activist’s impact still has current and future generations in a chokehold. Through three wide-ranging conversations with @keke, @preciouslee and @aurorajames — who are, in their own ways, carrying her torch—Iman unpacks what it truly means to be an icon for the ages.
Here are some excerpts from the issue:
Keke Palmer:
“Obviously, you’re an icon. I’m curious: When was it real to you? And what does it mean to you to be an icon?”
Iman: “I don’t know what it really means. And you know this more than anybody else because you started in this business very young: Every time, it’s a growth spurt. So, it’s never like you get to a destination that you become an icon. And the definition continuously changes. But I’ve always kept it in my head that the minute that you start affecting and changing people’s lives by just how you live, then you’re an icon to them. I don’t need to be an icon to many. I just need to be an icon to a few.”
Aurora James:
“Since 2020, every makeup brand has diversified and added a lot more shades, but, genuinely, why do you think they just weren’t doing it?”
Iman: “They didn’t understand the nuances. And they didn’t really want to invest money in us. What they wanted is to benefit from us, but not invest.” … “So one of the things that I created—and it was the first time it was created for women with skin of color—was bronzers. People were like, ‘What the hell is a bronzer for a skin of color?’ And I was like, ‘You know Alek Wek, how dark she is? She can benefit from a bronzer.’ It just makes your skin come alive. It’s not a sun thing, it is what makes skin look luminous—and that’s what they didn’t understand.”
Precious Lee:
“In 2020, as you know, is when—although I’d been there since 2013—I was a new face in 2020 and it was like an opening, a reveal, or removing this blanket that I felt.”
Iman: “You remember [at] the CFDA [event] that we were sitting next to each other, I told you… I mean, I remember the first time I saw you. I believe it was Versace, and boom, boom, this girl is coming. Tits jumping up and down. Now, that’s a supermodel. And to me it is—when we talk about body positivity and all that, I didn’t even look at it that way. When I saw you coming down that [runway], to me, that’s a supermodel.”
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