- You know, we thought about who could kick off Beauty Week.
And we were lucky enough to actually have this woman
come on the show.
She is a groundbreaking icon,
and she was discovered on the streets of Nairobi Kenya,
in 1975, by photographer, Peter Beard.
In the United States, she became one of the very first
black supermodels in the country and she walked the runway
for Carolina Herrera's first ever runway show.
And she was a biggest of muses in the fashion industry,
working with Halston, Versace, Saint Laurent, and in 1982,
she married, literally,
the man of all men, David Bowie.
And in 1994, she launched Iman Cosmetics
and she is an empire who revolutionized the industry.
She was the very first woman to feature a Native American
woman in her beauty campaigns.
And she is known by just one name.
Iman!
Please welcome a true beauty and a goddess.
(audience applauding)
- Oh.
- Oh my goodness, Iman,
I'm so honored to be speaking with you.
I wrote on your Instagram last night,
'cause I saw you posted you were coming on the show.
May I just say I did a deep dive
into your Instagram account?
It is so well branded and the Iman Daily quotes
are just so powerful.
I was screen grabbing a ton of them.
They are so impactful.
How and why do you run your Instagram account
like this beautiful, branded, meaningful
mindset kind of way?
- Well, first of all, I'm very, very happy
to be meeting you finally.
I have been a fan of yours forever.
And for me, when I heard that you were doing
FLOWER Cosmetics, you know, I thought,
how authentic is that to her?
Because, you know, whenever I hear the name Drew,
I just think, you know, smile and joy, you know?
So, thank you for having me.
- I can't believe I'm hearing any of this.
Please continue.
I'm like, ahhhh!
Okay.
- No, congratulations, congratulations.
You are authentic to yourself.
You're authentic to your brand.
And talking about Iman Daily, it is,
you know, I'm 65 years old.
So it is a culmination, I start every day reading
and then however I feel the day and where it is leading me
is what my Daily is really about.
And it has really become a very grounding thing
for a lot of people to check.
So sometimes, even if I'm traveling and I'm late
with the Iman Daily, people will say,
"I can't start the day without the Iman Daily."
"What is it today?"
So I'm really grateful to that.
I'm really grateful to that.
- I mean, you have had such an extraordinary life.
And when I was doing my research with you,
I got really hooked into the Peter Beard moment.
And, you know, I was a huge fan of his work.
And if you see his work, it's so iconic and, you know,
he has the African Plains and the handwritten writing
and it's sort of, almost like decoupage, collage style.
It's very, very iconic.
But when he discovered you in Nairobi
and the way he convinced you and then brought you over,
and that press conference where you glamorously
came off the airplane, but then felt
curious, indignant,
and very strong about the reaction
from the press towards you.
I was riveted by your powerful response
back in the day.
- Yes, when he brought me here,
he concocted this idea or this story
that he found me in the Bush.
Needless to say, you know, my father was a diplomat
and I speak five languages.
And you know, he told everybody that
I didn't speak a word of English, literally.
So it was indignant.
I can definitely say he did not mean any harm by it,
but of course I was, you know, indignant about it
that I even speak more languages than he does.
- Yes!
- Yeah, so I did--
- Five languages you speak!
Five!
- Yeah, so I did correct the whole idea,
but you know, it's like this fantasy about
like a fair lady, you know, like somebody that is brought
from the jungle to another jungle, which is New York,
and then just becomes a supermodel.
So it's the whole idea of that fantasy.
And I've always said, you know, it's rooted in racism,
but I definitely can say, in all honesty,
that he was not, because he has passed away,
a racist person.
But you know, sometimes that's what it is,
is the language that we use that we don't think about it
when people say, "Oh, you don't look black."
I mean, I look very Somali,
so I don't know where they're coming from.
But a lot of the times people would even say,
"Well, you look like you could be mixed."
I'm not mixed.
I'm pure Somali.
So, you know, language does matter, you know?
- I agree, words matter so much.
It's why I love the dictionary.
And I was talking with my boss, Elaine, last night
and saying, you know, words are the most
powerful thing we have.
They are a weapon.
They are our highest form of communication.
They unite us, they divide us.
And what I loved was that you took a moment where a man
was sort of giving a Pygmalion type of fantasy
and your reality, your real story that you fought
to come through was so much more powerful
and incredible and strong
and empowered than the fantasy.
So we're gonna take a quick commercial break.
And when we come back, I'm gonna continue to marvel at you.
I can't believe you're here.
I'm freaking out.
Thank you so much.
(upbeat music)