Fashion 101: Kimora Lee Simmons of Phat Fashions

Name: Kimora Lee Simmons born Kimora Lee Perkins

Career: Former Model, Current Fashion Designer, CEO of Phat Fashions

Bio: Kimora was born in St. Louis Missouri on May 4, 1975. At the age of 13, her uniquely beautiful look and gazelle-like figure led to her discovery by Marie-Christine Kollock of Paris Agency Glamour,who had her flown to Paris where she was signed by Chanel soon after her 13th birthday. She worked under Karl Lagerfield ,the famed Chanel designer, and became known in the fashion world after he closed his couture show with her dressed as a child bride.Since then she has been on several runways all over the world, and has even appeared in a couple of music videos and TV shows such as America's Next Top Model and her own show Life in the Fab Lane.In 1998, she married Russel Simmons the then CEO of Phat Fashions, a clothing company, and began working as a fashion designer in the capacity of Creative Director of Baby Phat, a female centric hip hop clothing line. She worked her way to the top and eventually became the CEO of Phat Fashions. She has three kids, Aoki Lee, Ming Lee (whom she had with Russel before the divorce) and a baby boy called Kenzo Lee whom she had with Djimon Honsou, her new husband.

Reasons Kimora intrigues me :

She appreciates the glamour in her life, while remaining aware of the things that are really important.

She creates her own words and uses them regularly like the word Fabulousity.

She is a fashion designer with vision, artistic talent and a head for business.

She not only knows her brand but lives her brand.

She proves that you can balance motherhood and being a fashion mogul.

She knows what she wants and goes for it. She has drive.

She has a well defined personal style.

She isn't afraid to take the risks required to succeed.

She has a pretty cool sense of humour.

She has a show that lets me know about what life as a CEO of a fashion company is really like.

She is strong.

To find out more about Kimora you can visit her site.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

Photos from: Starpulse.com and Ok magazine

P.S. So let me know what you think. Who do you think is important in the fashion industry? What labels do you like? What do you think about Kimora? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Mirror Me: I am not afraid to mix prints...

*Edit* i.e I totally forgot

Scarf: Clockhouse

Sweater: C and A

Top: Gift from roommie :)

Jeans: White House Black Market

Boots: Barnes and Nobles

My Darling Devotees,

Say hello to Mirror Me, my outfit post segment!

For the longest time, there was a huge disconnect between the person I appeared to be, and the person I knew I really was, and this gap was only bridged through my personal style. Ever since I was 8 I think, I've had a huge investment in my style because it was around that time that I started to lose the ability to just be the outgoing, flamboyantly creative, whimsically free-spirited, predominantly happy person I knew I could be. I began to be more self-conscious, more reserved and more withdrawn. At first, it was just little things, like I would not like to be surrounded by people at parties, but would instead take my food and curl up in a corner with whatever novel I happened to be carrying around at the time. But it got worse, and with every additional unkindness done to me, or hardship I encountered, I withdrew even more until the difference between the way I dressed, (which was always really colourful, bright, bold and fun) and the way I acted (which was awkward and/or reserved at best and antisocial at worse) was comical. People would be amazed by my style, and they were shocked by how comfortable I was in taking what they saw as 'fashion risks' (i.e. anything that was different from the normal trends of the time) but what I saw as part of who I really was. I knew what I liked and no fleeting trend could change that, it could only enhance it.

The peak of this disparity was probably junior high and since then the gap has become a lot less evident. Today, you can barely see any resemblance of the girl I was in the girl I am today. College has sort of liberated me from the imaginary ropes I had myself in and allowed me to be the person I've always been inside. My style, which I describe as predominantly Boho-Whimsical in the summer and spring, and boho glam in the fall and winter (although it is going a sort of odd transition right now as can be seen above) is truly reflective of who I am. My friends describe me as always really energetic, bubbly, vivacious and cheerful but even though I know there are times this doesn't describe me all the time (nervous breakdown at 3 am working on english essay, anyone?) I think it's a pretty accurate description of me most of the time.

Anyway, this was just a little peak into my style history and explanation for why personal style is so important to me. My personal style spoke up for me when I couldn't speak up for myself. It told people there was something more about me than the shy, reserved girl I used to be. I decided to start doing outfit posts because individuality and personal style mean so much to me and seeing others' style can be a huge source of inspiration. I hope to elaborate more on the concept of my personal style and style history soon, so look out for that.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. What are your views on personal style? Do you get inspired by other people's style? What is more important to you, following trends or maintaining personal style? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.