- Hi Vogue, this Iman and today I'm very excited
to share with you my life in looks.
[upbeat music]
Some of it I might even remember where, when,
and how it happened but it's always exciting.
This is 1975,
this is probably the same week I arrived in New York.
I arrived, to be specific, October 15th.
I was very excited, so the plane lands
and I'm driven to New York,
and there was a garbage strike. [laughs]
There was garbage everywhere.
I can see that I'm a little bit
don't know what I'm doing, I was scared.
I have never seen a fashion magazine in my life.
I've never worn heels, or makeup for that matter,
and so I had no idea what I was walking into,
and what I love about this look is actually
I'm wearing a Somali traditional clothes.
The headscarf, but I remember that necklace.
I bought it in Kenya.
Probably cost me a fortune, and I still have it,
but now it's more like a sculpture
that lies around on the table.
This is 1977 for American Vogue.
So you can see the difference two year makes. [laughs]
I have a bit of footing, I know how to work in a heel,
the way even I'm standing
with one leg wearing a heel, that's a lot.
This is my first Vogue shoot.
So here I am wearing Halston.
Peter took me to see Halston,
literally, the fourth day
that I arrived in New York.
So I walk into Halston studio
and he was grand with all these mirrors around him,
and a hand in his pocket.
The ever-present cigarette in his hand
and he said to me, "darling, can you walk,"
and I said to him, how the hell do you think I got here?
I had no idea what he was talking about
and he actually had Pat Cleveland come
and help me to show me how to walk.
I was mesmerized by Pat
because, as you know, she twirls and all that,
and I was like, nobody's gonna be expecting me to do this.
There's no way I can do that,
and needless to say, I've never copied her,
'cause I don't do the twirling.
I decided that I will come up with my own walk,
making myself very grand, and walk slowly, and that.
But all that came out of fear.
This picture is for Yves Saint Laurent, 1988.
What an amazing man.
I was always impressed, first of all,
the first time I went to Paris and I met him.
I was impressed at how many black models that he hired.
90% of the models of his runway were black models,
so that was very new to me to see it,
but the other thing was that
he can create things out of nothing, like magic.
So I believe this collection was inspired by Mondrian
as you can see it, it's colors and cut ups.
One thing is that he always liked,
he would say, you have such a great smile,
please smile when you're on the runway.
What is so different than runways now
because you have literally a mosh pit of photographers now
that is right in front of the models.
So the girls never look, now, to the sides.
They always look straight forward to the photographers
and the cameras.
So that is what you see, is like,
I am reacting to photographers
or also to the audience.
So this is 1989, and as I said,
my life in looks is my life with no look. [laughs]
Sometimes the absence of clothes,
and with major boots like that, says it all.
This is when I announced
that I was retiring from modeling
and I decided that I should have a big story
written about my career and my retirement.
This was the last picture
and it really is supposed to be me
and the end of my career as runway model and as a model,
so the clothes were optional. [laughs]
But we couldn't resist these amazing YSL boots.
Wow, talk about runway.
Thierry Mugler was one of my favorites,
but I have to say,
he literally discovered me as a runway model.
Once Therry Mugler came into my scene everything changed.
We started with the hair.
I have to tell you, I have discovered the first girl
who actually was able to do extensions, hair extensions.
She experimented on me.
So we really discovered how to do the extensions,
so the hair came into play,
and all drama and all bets were off.
It was high theater.
We're talking about theater theater,
and the clothes delivered that.
So you were really acting in the scenes of this runway.
So this is 1991, very early when David and I met,
and at that time I literally wore only Alaia.
I have no idea why, but what girl would say no to an Alaia?
I think I seduced my husband in Alaia.
I went to lunch in Alaia. [laughs]
I walked the streets in Alaia.
I never do head-to-toe one designer, but only for Alaia.
This is one thing about also Alaia, his belts.
He does the most exquisite belts.
But there is only one hole. [laughs]
If you put one pound, you can't wear that belt again.
So, there you are.
This is 1991, me going to Herb Ritts's birthday party.
I have very soft spot for this picture,
because the gentleman in the background
was the one who set a blind date of David and I.
He was David's hairdresser.
I just moved to L.A. and he told me
that he was having a birthday party
and that he would like me to come.
He gave me the address, it was a restaurant,
and I thought it was a party party,
but there were only four people.
Him and his boyfriend and David and I,
and that's how we met David.
Teddy Antolin, may he rest in peace,
is the one who set up and it was a blind date,
and he did good and I did good. [laughs]
So this is 1996 at the Met
and I'm wearing Christian Lacroix.
There's a very famous video out
that some journalist asked me,
"well, what brings you out here tonight,"
and I said, "this dress." [laughs]
When you have that dress you gotta go out.
The hair was done by a friend of mine
who's a hairdresser, Oscar James,
and he thought ingenue with the short bangs.
But it's lovely, it's very lovely.
I couldn't breathe, but who cares? [laughs]
So this is 1996, Chanel boutique opening
and I remember that I wanted to wear this,
'cause I just loved it.
It's Versace, the whole thing is Versace,
shoes, bag, again the whole thing.
I was trying to be also very respectful of Tocar,
because Car was gonna be there,
and why wasn't I wearing a Chanel, right?
Well, he didn't send me a Chanel, so what can I tell you?
I have to get what I can.
No, but he loved it, he loved the outfit.
He said it's very chique, it's very elegant.
It makes you look so young, he said.
So this 1997 at the Met tribute to Janet Versace
and what I love, love about this picture,
I'm not wearing Versace.
I'm wearing, actually, Gianfranco Ferre,
who was a very dear friend of mine
and he was going, obviously,
lots of people wanted to wear Versace and all that,
and I said I would wear,
if he did something in tribute to a Versace design.
So this was what he came up with
and this Donatella admiring the dress.
She said, yeah, he really did a good job
paying a tribute to Versace.
Realized she looks great in here, but she always does.
So this is 1999 Vogue Millennium Issue.
I wanna say it was an MTV night before.
The video awards was before,
so a lot of the girls were at that party, I saw them,
and I told them, don't be late tomorrow. [laughs]
We got there, but what you see here
is something that created a ruckus at this shoot.
I got there with an Afro that was bright red.
So nobody expected it, so they thought it was a wig.
Oh, yeah, ha ha ha, it's funny.
Annie Leibovitz was taking the pictures.
She said, okay, now remove the wig.
I said, it's not a wig, it's here,
and the reason I did it, I really,
because I knew who the group of the girls were gonna be,
and let's not forget it's a millennium issue.
I really wanted, if there was a young black girl
who's gonna look at these pictures in the future,
that she would see come curly hair.
To see herself represented
and that's what I did.
I knew Naomi was gonna have straight hair,
because that was her signature look,
so I just wanted to give a counterpart to that,
and Anna told me that she loved the hair.
So this is 2009, Model as a Muse.
Great exhibition, thanks to Anna
for actually putting something that celebrates models.
This is custom made by Donna Karan.
It's a glorious, glorious one piece that's very sculptural.
There was no room for underwear or nothing.
You just go as you are.
It was beautiful, I loved it.
I have to say, it was one of the best times
I've had at the Met,
because there were so many models
and models are much easier than celebrities, really.
We have more fun. [laughs]
This is 2009 in Oscar de la Renta
at the American Ballet Theater Gala.
One good thing about this dress and this color
is that I can use any time to pose something,
but St. Patrick's Day, [laughs] is the perfect color.
I have to tell you, this was one of the first dresses
that I have worn out that is that big.
Usually I don't gravitate towards
really voluminous dresses like this.
You really have to work all evening.
But I enjoyed it, I enjoyed it.
It was very Cinderella-like
and I kept on thinking, wow,
how is there a Jessica Parker, half of my height,
and carries these big dresses effortlessly?
It's like it's an art form.
This is 2015 at the amfAR Gala in Balmain.
I think I just met Olivier,
'cause we just did the W shoot.
We became close and I really wanted, for the first time,
to wear what I would call the new evening.
Something that wasn't really a tuxedo.
Something wasn't a dress.
Something that wasn't a gown.
I loved it because, first of all,
all the stripes are very flattering,
they make you very elongated and it's very dramatic,
and I loved Olivier since then.
Here I am at Venice Film Festival, 2019,
and I'm wearing Valentino Couture.
Beautiful, beautiful, and this, I have to tell you,
it was very dramatic trying to get into the boat.
In Venice there are no cars.
But getting this whole outfit,
with all these feathers around it,
getting in and out of the boat then up on a stairs.
It was drama, and so when I got there,
I barely had five minutes to do,
but because there are all these birds on it,
I was thinking flight.
So that's what I did, I just had my one arm up
so that it just showcases the whole feathers
and it looks like birds in flight.
This is 2019 Women's Wear Daily Honors for Valentino
and, of course, I'm wearing a Valentino.
This was a little bit tricky.
They created a sash for me as a belt,
because I felt like I was being engulfed with the fabrics,
so they created that sash
so that there is a separation on the waist.
When people saw me, they felt like, oh my god,
how are you carrying this whole dress?
But it felt like feather, like I was wearing a t-shirt,
and this is what's so great about Pierpaolo for Valentino,
his clothes, even the couture dresses,
as complicated as they are, as voluminous as that are,
as constructed as they are,
they really are very comfortable in wearing it.
Wow, so this 2020 at the amfAR Gala,
and I was getting an award,
but I wanted really to shop my closet.
I have great outfits.
This Diana Karan, I loved,
because it's really a beautiful tuxedo dress.
Completely covered, long sleeves, as you can see.
It has a train, but this is from 1990.
I have no idea what magic that I concocted [laughs]
that I got into it.
But the big surprise, and the best thing of the evening,
was seeing Diana Karan's face when she saw me.
She could not believe it,
first, that I still had this dress,
and that I was able to get into it.
For me, this experience been very lovely.
I'm one of those girl who I never say
that I just wanna be looking backwards.
But it's lovely to see pictures
and see the looks of what you wore in life,
and where you were.
So, thank you, Vogue for sharing with me this pictures.
I have really enjoyed it
and I hope you have enjoyed it too.
[gentle music]