Stories about Lindsay Lohan's penchant for wild rides may be coming out of the woodwork, but the details of model-turned-designer Kimora Lee Simmons' joyride to the top are just as juicy! It's no wonder she snagged her own reality show, Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, premiering this Sunday at 8/7c on the Style Network.
After all, this is the same woman who appeared on a Times Square billboard wearing nothing but sneakers, some bling and a smile. "I'm always naked...growing up in the fashion industry...I don't know if I'm a little bit of an exhibitionist, but mostly I don't care, I don't give a damn," Kimora revealed on Tyra. (She'd be a shoo-in for The Real World.) It's just this kind of outrageous behavior that makes for good television!
Kimora's approach to life melds high fashion and hip-hop. "The hip-hop lifestyle means being on full-blast, 24/7; it's always luxurious, fun and sexy," she writes in Fabulosity: What It Is and How to Get It. And no doubt Kimora represents! She owns the largest private collection of Louis Vuitton handbags and has an impressive assortment of designer stilettos (we're still awaiting a diss track from Imelda Marcos).
And did we mention that Kimora loves her bling? "I don't apologize for my diamonds," she told the New York Daily News last year. "Look, Queen Elizabeth has more diamonds than me. Why don't people attack her for it?" She has even iced out everything from Hello Kitty to the front teeth of her runway models. That's right—she had an orthodontist applying grills backstage at the Baby Phat show last fall.
"Some people say it's ostentatious, but what they don't get is that it's all one big celebration, a way of telling the world, 'I'm here! I made it,' " she writes.
A misfit from the Midwest, Kimora was born out of wedlock and raised by a single mother. "There wasn't much cash to throw around on frivolous things like fashion, so naturally that's what I wanted most," she confesses in Fabulosity.
What she least wanted was to be called names like "Chinky Giraffe." As she recalls, "It really hurt, especially since 'chink' was like a slap in the face to my Mom and all the values she believed in." But it was Kimora's exotic features (her mom is Japanese-Korean, her father African American) and towering physique (she was 5-foot-10 by the age of 11 and now stands 6 feet tall) that made her worthy of another moniker: "Karlette," after style czar Karl Lagerfeld.
Dubbed "the face of the 21st century" by Lagerfeld, Kimora was modeling for the House of Chanel by the age of 13. Designer garb galore and no more mean girls? Check!
Kimora's Cinderella story wouldn't be complete without her marriage to the "Godfather of Hip-Hop," Russell Simmons, with whom she has two daughters—Ming Lee, 7, and Aoki Lee, 4. Eventually, Kimora became president and creative director of premiere female hip-hop brand Baby Phat, a spinoff of her husband's Phat Farm line.
"I have this vision of Kimora being the greatest brand in the world," Russell told New York magazine back in 2004—and that vision has been coming true ever since. Although his marriage to Kimora didn't last, his dream for the former model is alive and well. Today, Kimora's fashion empire includes clothing, shoes, fragrance, cosmetics, dolls and jewelry.
"I was born a fashion girl, and I'll die a fashion girl. I'm playing with color and texture and shimmer with about the same seriousness as my daughters do, and I'm enjoying it!" she declares in Fabulosity.
And trust us, so will you! Get ready for your next guilty pleasure, 'cause Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane premieres this Sunday, August 5, at 8/7c—only on E!
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