Iman isn't borne aloft on a litter wherever she goes by shirtless men waving palm fronds. She just carries herself as if she is. She's not at all pretentious - she's funny, with impeccable manners. But I have never met anyone more regal.
In Toronto to promote her new series, Project Runway Canada (premiering at 10 p.m. Monday on the Slice network), Iman curls up on a couch, tucking her animal-print stilettos beneath her. Her skin is like melted chocolate; her eyes miss nothing. She is tall and flawlessly attired in a gold-sequined jacket over a white, ribbed tank top and dark jeans. But her strongest feature is her voice, which is deep and textured by the five languages she grew up speaking. She enunciates every syllable of every word, rolling her R's and uttering some responses - "Yes! Certainly!" or "No! Why would I?" - as if she were making pronouncements from a podium.
"She sits in this white chair on the set, her arms are stretched out, and she's absolutely regal," says veteran fashion designer Brian Bailey, who mentors the show's 12 contestants. (To those familiar with the four-year-old American version, he's Tim Gunn to Iman's Heidi Klum.) "But I always thought she was mad at me," continues Bailey. "She'd call me: 'Brrrrian!' She'd say, 'But that's how I talk!' We went out for dinner one night, and she said" - here he sits up ramrod straight - " 'I want beef, give me beef!' It's not just about looks, it's about personality. A woman can put on a dress and become something. With Iman, it's already there."
It is instantly obvious that she's fathoms deeper than any fashion stereotype. Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1955, Iman was poor until age 10, when her father became an ambassador. "I had then a privileged life, I was chauffeur-driven everywhere," she says. "Eight years later, we became refugees. Non-government organizations are the ones who sustained us. It never left me, the kindness of these strangers."
She's a lifelong supporter of several charities, especially Keep a Child Alive, which provides AIDS drugs to African families. "I'm very touched by the generosity of people in the West who have adopted children from Africa," Iman says, "but my thinking when it comes to AIDS is that we must save their mothers and fathers, because that's who they really need."
In 1975, she began modelling, and "everything was over the top for me again, all this money, everything at my disposal," she says. She smashed through the ranks of Christie Brinkley-like blondes to become a new icon, landing Vogue covers and dominating runway shows. Yves Saint Laurent designed an entire couture collection inspired by her. She shot with Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton (who convinced her to pose nude for her final Vogue shoot by taking off his clothes, too).
"When you have, then have not, you totally understand that life really can change overnight," she says. "You can have no superiority. You can't ever think, 'I'm the shit.' No! Anything can happen to anybody at any time. So that gives me a balance. In fashion, a major statement is like, 'Black is the new black.' You have to laugh it off."
When Klum phoned her to be a guest judge on Project Runway, Iman agreed - if Klum would promote Iman's book, The Beauty of Color. She later signed on to host the show's Canadian version because it was an easy commute from New York, where she lives with her husband of 15 years, pop star David Bowie; and it shot in summer when their daughter Alexandria, 7, was not in school. (Her daughter Zulekha, from her marriage to pro basketball player Spencer Haywood, graduated from Michigan State University, and now works in sales at Iman's company.)
Though she isn't a reality-TV fan, Iman admires Project Runway "because it's not salacious. We don't try to create hyperbolic, unrealistic dramas. But the creative force, the agony of the blank canvas, is really something to see." Her advice for the aspiring designers was not to think locally - "It's not about Toronto. Fashion is global" - and "No woman needs another dress. We need things to uplift us in our daily lives. That's what their jobs are."
Her approach to her personal life is equally firm. "The secret is privacy. Nobody thinks mystery is important any more; people feel any PR is good PR. But if you draw a line, people won't cross it. For me, home is not allowed, my daughters are not allowed."
She laughs conspiratorially. "Also, when I got married, my husband and I had done it all," she says. "I partied at Studio 54 till 8 a.m. There wasn't anything new to do except settle down. I've always prided myself that I had the foresight to leave the party when it's time to leave. And thank God I did it all back then. Now something silly you do is on YouTube and the whole world sees it. They talk about Lindsay Lohan and I think, 'Poor kid, she's barely 21.' For what I did, they have no proof!"
About family life, Iman does say, "Definitely, it helps if your partner is, to you, funny and entertaining. My husband is a constant amusement to me. ... He's interested in everything. And he loves everything I cook for him." She cooks "every night except Sunday. I refuse to cook Sunday! But I love my two daughters sitting at the counter and cooking with me. Everybody asks, 'Aren't you tired?' Yes. Most of the time I'm tired. But it's a big service to my family to eat meals together."
Bowie and Alexandria, who loves to draw, have a standing date on Tuesdays to visit museums and galleries, and Bowie "thinks Toronto has the best modern dance in the world," Iman says. They also just got a puppy, Max, half Cavalier King Charles spaniel, half Havanese. "Somebody said to me today, 'You lost weight.' I said, 'I've been walking the dog! It's a constant walk!' My husband refuses to walk him. He said, 'I can't walk small dogs.' But the dog does lie on him." She laughs. "My life is a bit chaotic, but it's exactly what it's supposed to be."
I marvel again at her level-headedness. "I'm 52, so I have that going for me," she says. "Fashion can be an assault on identity. You can lose yourself totally, especially now, when it's more about selling a brand than the personality of the model."
She calls the pressure to be extremely thin and to alter one's body "atrocious. What is size zero, the air? Also, I had breast augmentation in 1983. I would never do it again. People say, 'It made me feel better' - no. It didn't change anything. If it did, you'd see more of my boobs. But I leave them under cover. And my designer friends gave me a lashing for it."
We have time for one last pronouncement. "Older women have something that no young girl ever could have: a sense of humour and a lot of experience," Iman says. "Don't concentrate on, 'My legs don't look as good as they used to.' You're much sexier than you think. This is the fashion motto that I live by: 'In a world of trends, I remain a classic.' " Not to mention, a goddess.
Johanna Schneller