Iman Talks Business

by Nicole D. Smith

April 25, 2008

Atlanta Woman pulled supermodel and business tycoon Iman away from the National Black Arts Festival awards ceremony in Atlanta where she was honored as its first annual "Model Citizen." AW's Nicole D. Smith spoke with the fashion icon the day before a Macy's fashion show held locally at the Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery.

Iman is a supermodel that has seemingly done it all. She's traveled the world as one of the most sought-after fashion models of her time, modeling for Versace, Calvin Klein and Yves Saint Laurent, to name just a few. She's married to a British rock star and actor, David Bowie, and is the mother of two daughters, Zulekha and Alexandria. The glamour woman even finds the time to Keep a Child Alive as a global ambassador for the not-for-profit organization that raises awareness about AIDS in Africa, the continent she calls home.

So, it's no surprise that with her intrepid attitude, Iman has tenaciously taken on another title: businesswoman. She's the CEO of IMAN Cosmetics, Skincare and Fragrances for women of color. She recently started IMAN Global Chic, an internationally-inspired collection of handbags and accessories. And although the titles of CEO and founder sound appealing, the brown-haired beauty admits that the title comes with less glamour and much more hard work.

"It is not 'fun' like it used to be when I was modeling," she says with laughter. "It is a big responsibility. It's about management, whether it's managing your time or other people's time. It is understanding how to use other people's time properly and [figuring out] what people are good at doing in your staff."

Before starting her cosmetics line - which Hoovers.com reports had $2.5 million in sales last year - in 1994, Iman began to think like a good entrepreneur, recognizing a void that needed to be filled with a good product. In her case, the fashionista called on her own life experience to identify what that missing product was: makeup for women of color, something she says is very much a niche, yet also very much needed.

"I came to America in 1975 for my first modeling job. My makeup artist asked me a perplexing question, which was, 'Did you bring your own foundation?' He didn't ask that to the Caucasian models," she says. " He asked me. And I had no idea what he was talking about. I just had arrived from Africa, was 18 years old and had never worn makeup in my life. So, when he finished my makeup, I knew something terribly was wrong because I looked gray."

So, after mixing and matching makeup for her own skin tone for many years, Iman decided to launch her own line of skin products for women of color and leave the modeling world. But she is quick to say that just because she is celebrity with a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit, it didn't mean her business was an automatic success.

"It hasn't failed, but it was on the brink," she says. "The product itself has always been good. But the market starts shifting, the trends start shifting, me shifting my thinking –'I should follow the trend'- you get off your focus. You lose your sight as to what your purpose was of the brand. So, there's a lot of ways of failing. We've incurred all of those but came out still intact. Thank God!"

Now that Iman has gracefully gotten past the startup phase of her business, Procter & Gamble directs the packaging and distribution of her cosmetic line, and she happily gives her products and brands eponymous labels and quickly asserts that she remains a part of the day-to-day operations of her cosmetics and accessory lines, keeping her vision for her products alive and well. "I decide on the colors and the brand, and how it should look and the direction we're going," she says, "because at the end of the day, the brand is me."

But great products or not, Iman says she realizes that even though the product bears her name, she didn't create a thriving business all on her own. She says surviving the often brutal marketplace required that she stand on the shoulders of other women, including top female executives at brands like Estée Lauder, Saks Fifth Avenue and Burberry.

"The women who are CEOs of these huge brands have made themselves and their time available to me. They helped me and guided me through a terrain that I'm not always so sure about. That is something that comes from networking, and that is also something that comes from women in power."

After going through the ups and downs of owning your business, Iman says she hopes her trials and success encourage other women to get out and do the same.

"I [hope] I inspire any girl who can think that the sky is the limit and then beyond," she says. "Women, especially women, should understand that there's always another person who's more powerful than you. They actually can help you. But you have to ask for the help."