The Greatest Four-Letter Word

✱ Iman✱ the greatest four-letter word IMAN is more in the moment than ever, even when she’s needlepointing for her grandkids by ERIC WILSON photographed by ANTHONY MAULE styled by NINA STERGHIOU Let it be known that it was Iman’s idea to wear a wet T-shirt. With a career that has spanned four decades, Iman is “I suggested it,” she says over a glass of pinot grigio, such a reliably adaptable and yet physically unaltered sitting in the lobby of the Mercer hotel in New York City fixture of popular culture that most people wouldn’t know shortly after the photo shoot where the accompanying im- she actually retired from the runways in 1989. She hasn’t age of one super-soaked supermodel was created. Iman had so much as attended a fashion show since, though she been asked to wear a Supreme T-shirt as a simple homage continues to outpace even some of her youngest peers both to her stature as an unrivaled deity of the modeling world, a in relevancy and in ad pages, most recently appearing in trailblazing cosmetics entrepreneur, and a long-standing campaigns for Valentino and Balmain. Fans on Instagram advocate for women. are obsessed with unearthing glamorous photos of Iman Too basic for Iman. She had other ideas. from the heyday of ’80s fashion, when she appeared in “I’m 63—why would I have a Supreme T-shirt?” she says. Thierry Mugler shows and attended galas with Calvin “It’s just a boring T-shirt. It’s too young and too hip. So I said, Klein. Especially popular are images that show the inimi- jokingly, ‘Why don’t we get it wet?’ And as I said it, every- table pairing of two icons of style, Iman and her late hus- body said, ‘Yeah!’ I was like, ‘Fuck, now I have to deliver.’ ” band, David Bowie, who reportedly once said, “You would Frame She delivered. think that a rock star being married to a supermodel would jeans. Necklace, “Well, you know, I try,” Iman deadpanned. be one of the greatest things in the world. It is.” her own. 224 InSTYLE MARCH 2019 pearing in public again, though she avoids the red carpets for fear that those conversations with reporters will inevi- tably lead to the subject of her loss. “I’m fine,” she says. “But it becomes awkward, so I try to stay away.” She has instead focused on family, encouraging Lexi, her 18-year-old daughter with Bowie, in her pursuit of a career as an artist, and spending time with her three young grand- A children. Iman pulls a phone from her purse to show a photograph of a framed needlepoint teddy bear she had An even more crucial reminder of her continuing legacy is been working on as a present for the youngest, Zowie, a that as the founder and chief executive of Iman Cosmetics, granddaughter by Bowie’s son, the film director Duncan she created a collection of makeup and foundation with an Jones, who also has a 2-year-old son, Stenton. Zulekha extensive array of shades specifically designed for women of Haywood, Iman’s older daughter from her previous mar- color decades ahead of the current beauty-industry move- riage to the retired basketball player Spencer Haywood, has ment toward inclusivity. And yet in person, she remains a 1-year-old daughter, Lavinia. Imagining the possibilities as humble, charming, and, of course, strikingly beautiful from the perspective of a new generation has, in a way, as she must have appeared to the photographer Peter caused Iman to wonder what’s next for her too. Beard when he met her as a student in Nairobi in 1975. “My plan is just loose,” she says. “It’s kind of weird, be- “She’s not just a model on the outside but also on the cause I’ve worked all my life, from when I was 14 years old. inside,” says her friend Donna Karan, who first worked I mean, I’ve never planned anything, besides Iman with Iman when Karan, still in her 20s, became the head Cosmetics. I’ve stumbled into things, or things found me. designer of Anne Klein and Iman had just arrived in So now I’m at a stage where I’ll just see what happens.” New York. Their connection was instant and has lasted Iman is reluctant to speak at length about Bowie, but she through the years, their careers, their marriages, their shares remembrances of him often, calling him her “forever children, their respective loves and losses. When Karan love” or posting on Instagram a picture of herself from 1991 introduced the Stephan Weiss Apple Awards last year to with a platinum blond wig created by the late Teddy Antolin, commemorate the memory of her late husband (Weiss the hairdresser who introduced them. Hours after we speak, died in 2001), one of the first honorees was Iman. she calls to respectfully request discretion, as, in many ways, “From the deep, deep essence inside her, she cares,” Iman and Bowie led their very private lives in public. Editor Karan says. friends have been invited into their homes over the years, Now both women are widows and grandmothers, a detail but none has ever been allowed to photograph them. In New Iman brings up as she explains that one of her latest pas- York, she recalls, Bowie often ate outside at cafés, reading sions happens to be needlepoint. Who would have imagined the newspaper, but people didn’t bother him. Iman as a crafter, wearing reading glasses no less? “My PR “This city is how my husband—well, both of us, but guy said, ‘I don’t want you ever doing that on airplanes or in especially David—was able to live,” she says. “We were public,’ ” she says, recognizing this sort of hobby might be going to move to London when we got married, and every considered off-brand for a supermodel. “I’m just an average time we got there, the paparazzi followed us from when girl, but I’ve always understood the importance of creating a we arrived at the airport until we left, so we decided we mystique so that people don’t know too much about me.” couldn’t raise a kid that way.” Though images of Iman tend to project a powerful sense Iman hasn’t left the country in seven years, not since her Maison Alaïa coat. BEAUTY BEAT of fierceness and independence, in reality she is that and husband became ill and their daughter was finishing high For easy smoky eyes, rim upper much more—funny, human, warm, and, since Bowie’s school, but now she plans to travel. She wants to visit lashes with Iman death three years ago, somewhat vulnerable and a little Morocco and all of northern Africa with Bethann Hardison, Cosmetics Perfect Eye Shadow Pencil wistful too. His absence, or rather his presence in all the a model-turned-agent and Iman’s closest friend of 40 years. in Mystery ($10; imancosmetics small reminders of daily life, remains almost palpable in And Karan has talked her into a trip to Cuba and Haiti. .com), then use a small shadow brush everything about Iman. She wears a necklace with his One thing is for certain, and that is she will remain so- to diffuse the color. name on it. Even her beloved Cavanese mix, an 11-year-old cially engaged. Though I have interviewed Iman on several Hair: Ursula Stephen for named Max, has one blue eye and one brown, kind of like occasions, the first time we spoke extensively was in 2013, Starworks Artists. Bowie, whose eyes appeared to be different colors as the when I wrote a feature for The New York Times on the sub- Makeup: Porsche Cooper for Iman result of one permanently dilated pupil. She has begun ap- ject of racism in fashion and what had led to a startling and Cosmetics. 226 InSTYLE MARCH 2019 1986: At home shameful lack of diversity on the runways and in advertising campaigns at 1992: At an L.A. the time. Many prominent advocates screening for diversity had been complaining of Single White about the problem for years but so Female politely that nothing seemed likely to change, at least not until the gloves ﬁ- nally came off. Hardison organized a 1989: At a launch campaign to chasten designers who event for a 1994: continued to ignore black models. Tia Maria ad At the N.Y.C. campaign première of Nell Iman went further, calling for an out- right boycott of those brands. 1991: At a “I remember at that time, the birthday most coveted bag was from Céline,” party for 1991: Herb Ritts she says. “Every girl, black, white, Strolling in in Culver the park in City, Calif. Asian, you name it, they wanted that Paris bag. I’ve never owned one for the simple reason they didn’t use any 1986: black girls. They were saying it was In a modeling for aesthetic reasons, like, velvet shot is out this season. They didn’t even know what they were saying.” Since then the picture has changed noticeably for the better. In the past few months Adut Akech, a striking Sudanese-Australian who closed the shows of Valentino and Chanel, took the No. 1 spot on the annual Models.com industry-awards list, and Naomi Campbell, who also participated in Hardison’s diversity initiative, débuted her ﬁrst beauty contract, with Nars, after more than 30 years in the business.

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