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.)
