Kimora Lee Simmons (born
Kimora Lee Perkins on May 4, 1975
[Russell's hip-hip birthday gift (April 26, 2004) People. Accessed 2008-02-19.]) is an American
fashion model, author, and the president and
Creative Director for Phat Fashions. Formerly the Creative Director of
Baby Phat, Simmons became
CEO of Phat Fashions after ex-husband
Russell Simmons stepped down. A 2007
reality television show,
Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, focuses on her life as a mother and CEO of Phat Fashions. She has appeared in music videos and was a judge on the first season of
America's Next Top Model.
Early life
Simmons was born in
St. Louis, Missouri and is of
Asian and African American descent.
['Fabulosity,' by Kimora Lee Simmons (review January 22, 2006) TheBookStandard.com. Accessed 2007-12-20.] Her mother is Joanne Perkins, a Korean-Japanese who was adopted by an American serviceman during the
Korean War. She now goes by her own mother's Japanese name, Kyoko. The name Kimora is a play on the Japanese surname Kimura. Her father is
African American Vernon Whitlock Jr., who previously worked as a Federal Marshal, a Social Security Administrator, and then a
barber in St. Louis.
[Phoebe Eaton (June 14, 2004) Kimora Lee Simmons, the New Queen of Conspicuous Consumption New York Magazine. Accessed 2007-12-20.]
Growing up in the northern St. Louis suburb of
Florissant, Missouri, Simmons was the target of schoolyard bullying and teasing, because of her height and Asian ancestry. By the time she was 10 years old, she was 5 feet, 10 inches tall.
[Galina Espinoza (July 1, 2002). Phat Cats. People. Accessed 2009-03-02.] There was no Asian influence or population in her community. Simmons' mother enrolled her daughter in a modeling class when she was eleven years old. Two years later she was discovered by Marie-Christine Kollock (a representative for seminal Paris Agency Glamour) at a Model Search in St. Louis (organized by Kay Mitchell) and sent to Paris. Simmons was awarded an exclusive modeling contract with Chanel and just after her thirteenth birthday, went to work under the tutelage of famed Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld.
