Kimora Lee Simmons

At 49 years old, Kimora Lee Simmons has this physical status:

Kimora Lee Simmons (born May 4, 1975), better known as Kimora Lee Simmons, is a leading businesswoman, venture investor, fashion designer, TV host, TONY winner, and model.

Early life

Kimora Lee Perkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

Simmons, a youth in Florissant, Missouri, was a frequent victim of bullying at school. Simmons struggled to find confidence and felt "different" because of her height - 5'10" by age ten and multiethnic ethnicity (she is African-American on her father's side and Japanese-Korean on her mother's).

Kimora's mother enrolled her in modeling lessons when she was eleven years old in an attempt to boost Kimora's morale. Simmons was discovered by the event's coordinator, Marie-Christine Kollock, an employee of the famous Paris modeling firm Glamour, two years later. Simmons returned to Paris where she will soon find love with fashion industry executives and begin her modeling career in earnest.

Simmons is a graduate of Lutheran North High School in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a student of the University of Illinois. Simmons returned to school in 2017, and she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Business and Entrepreneurial Affairs from the University of Hartford's Barney School of Business in Hartford, Connecticut.

Personal life

Kimora Perkins married Russel Simmons in December 1998. Ming Lee Simmons (born January 2000) and Aoki Lee Simmons (born August 2002) were two children before they divorced:

Simmons gave birth to Kenzo Lee Hounsou, her oldest son, who she also shares with actor and model Djimon Hounsou in May 2009. Simmons gave birth to Wolf Lee Leissner, her youngest son, who she shares with financier Tim Leissner in April 2015. Simmons also adopted Gary Lee Foster in 2020, making her a mother of five children in total.

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Career

Simmons signed an exclusive modeling contract with Chanel at the age of thirteen and began working under Chanel's then designer, Karl Lagerfeld. Lagerfeld and Simmons' mentor-muse relationship occurred at a time in fashion history where a multiethnic look like Simmons' was unprecedented in high-end fashion advertisements. "Karl chose a mixed-race model on a Parisian runway before anyone else," Simmons recalls. "I learned how to stand up and claim my destiny by my example - to dream bigger than I ever imagined possible and bring my dreams into existence."

Simmons, who starred on covers and in the pages of such fashion publications as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Elle, after closing the 1989 Chanel haute couture show as "The Bride."

Simmons introduced Baby Phat, a worldwide lifestyle company, in 1999. Phat Farm and overarching fashion label Phat Fashions were both launched in 1992 as a womenswear offshoot of the men's streetwear brand Phat Farm and overarching fashion label Phat Fashions, which Russel Simmons - Simmons' then husband - Simmons' then husband. Baby Phat was created to sell color collections that were true to the time, as Phat Farm and other black-owned fashion brands that debuted around the same time. Baby Phat grew to cross all barriers of culture and race, finally reaching mass-marketability and entering the vocabulary of both fashion and popular culture, mirroring the trajectory of the hip-hop music and style that inspired it.

Baby Phat's first fashion preview at New York Fashion Week took place on September 15, 1999. The performance was held at Radio City Music Hall and broadcast live to the Jumbotron in Times Square. Baby Phat fashion previews were a regular focal point during New York Fashion Week, with celebrities like Aaliyah, Lil' Kim (who also walked the Baby Phat runway in 2000), Missy Elliot, Mary J. Blige, and the Paris Hilton among others. Ming Lee and Aoki Lee were accompanied by Simmons as they arrived on the runway with her children, ending every baby Phat show. Simmons told Refinery29: "Of course having my babies on the runway with me is still the most important for me as a mother." However, I adored our front rows. While many in the industry and society at large did not have the talent or foresight to do so, the celeb and musician families who embraced the brand also inspired it to embrace the urban lifestyle. This was a movement. People forget that.

Simmons was later appointed President and Creative Director of Phat Fashions, which included Baby Phat Farm, Baby Phat Girlz, and Phat Farm Boys, making him one of the first women of color to have a stable of fashion brands. Simmons created a whole new category of urban lifestyle products and accessories for women by women during her time as Baby Phat's Creative Director.

Baby Phat's commercial success (the company was once estimated to be worth more than $1 billion) and cultural impact later drove Phat Fashions' growth into a slew of new product categories that included jewelry, handbags, footwear, swimwear, outerwear, infant accessories, and fragrance, which were all sold on a worldwide basis. The Baby Phat fragrance collection progressively expanded to include six scents: Goddess, Golden Goddess, Seductive Goddess, Fabulosity, Luv Me, and Dare Me, the last of which was created in Partnership with COTY Fragrances.

Simmons and Phat Fashions and its parent company Kellwood were fired in 2010. Simmons assumed her new role as President and Creative Director of JustFab, a personal shopping portal, in the upcoming year. Simmons lasted in this role until 2015.

Simmons began work on the creation of a new fashion brand, and Kimora Lee Simmons unveiled its first collection in the fall season of 2015. The namesake women's wear collection also sells luxurious clothing at entry-level price points in the American designer segment. Following its development, Kimora Lee Simmons' KLS was marketed for national exposure in upscale luxury stores such as Bloomingdales, Lord and Taylor, and Farfetch.

Simmons gave the keynote address at the unveiling of the She Innovates project led by UN Women's Gender Innovation Coalition for Change on March 8 of 2019. Simmons revealed to Bloomberg News that Baby Phat's acquisition and return are imminent. Kimora Lee Simmons was the author. The new Baby Phat will have the same feminine power story as did the brand's first iteration by being woman-owned, woman-led, and, as ever, made for women by women.

Baby Phat was relaunched in the summer of 2019 and later unveiled a new signature collection in the fall of 2019. Simmons said in a post-launch of Baby Phat, "The relaunch of Baby Phat will be based on a mainstream sportswear collection marketed to the mid-tier retail market." We discovered that Baby Phat resonated with people and lives deep inside their souls over the past several years. Young people are keen on design with a vision and place emphasis on a need for a message that is similar to what Baby Phat represented in its prime and is still can today."

Simmons has built a diverse portfolio of investments in new and emerging markets such as fashion, skin care, consumer goods, and technology. Codage, a French skin care line; Pureform Global, the first manufacturer of non-cannabis, non-hemp all natural CBD products; and Celsius, a "clean energy" negative calorie drink that was launched in 2015. Simmons co-launched Pellequr, a Beverly Hills spa with a modern twist on the traditional Korean Spa in the spring of 2019. Simmons is estimated to have amassed more than $200 million dollars from her various ventures and investments.

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