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In Toronto yesterday to announce that she will be hosting Project Runway Canada, style icon Iman said, "We don't come out of our mother's womb and become designers," clearly missing the parallel to how her natural beauty launched her career as a supermodel.

But to the extent that fashion design is a skill learned through practical application, business savvy and a passion for original presentation, Iman thinks she has the background to judge fairly. "I'm not a pushover, but they better be careful," she quipped, having been in the industry for over 20 years.

The show - a spinoff of successful U.S. and British versions (hosted by Heidi Klum and Kelly Osborne respectively) - will begin production in June and is scheduled to run on Slice, a Canadian women's channel, this fall.

Twelve contestants will compete for $100,000 to launch a fashion line, with the winning collection featured in a major Canadian glossy, yet to be determined.

Another detail still to come is which big-name designer will fill the shoes of Michael Kors or Julien MacDonald from the U.S. and U.K. versions, and the identity of the fashion mentor, a pivotal role.

In the meantime, Iman, the Somali-born CEO of a namesake line of cosmetics, is prepared for a month of commuting from New York, where she lives with her six-year-old daughter and husband David Bowie. She underscored that her love of Toronto's multiculturalism was not about "paying lip service."

She was equally insistent that she did not purchase her electric-blue, one-shoulder shift dress by expatriate Jay Godfrey because he is Canadian. At which point, it became clear that an outsider's knowledge of our industry consists of those who have made it abroad: She mentioned Canadians Dsquared2 in Milan and Romona Keveza in New York.

And that's where Project Runway Canada may actually prove different than many other reality shows.

"It's one of the only ones that's not salacious and where true talent comes out," said Iman, who could have passed for 25 (she's 52). "At the end of the day, to sell dreams that are unattainable is unfair."

Indeed, by comparison, selling clothes is a catwalk, er, cakewalk.