As a child, my home was filled with the latest issues of Essence, Jet, and Ebony featuring black women and men in colorful clothes and regal hairstyles. These images (along with my father's reassuring words) played a huge part in loving my skin tone, natural hair and taller-than-most-boys figure, however, I can't ignore the influence of Iman.
Discovered by photographer and artist Peter Beard while she was a university student, Iman's modeling career went full speed after posing for American Vogue in 1976 and becoming the muse for designers like Halston, Gianni Versace and Yves Saint-Laurent (who hailed her as his "dream woman"). While Mrs. David Bowie continued to rule the international runways and dabble in acting, she's also broken barriers with her line of cosmetics for ethnic women and HSN clothing collection. And of course, Iman has accomplished these monumental milestones ever so fashionably in neck-plunging gowns, jewel-toned frocks and flawless hair.
In honor of Iman's 57th birthday on Wednesday (July 25th), we're taking a look back at the Somali stunner's style over the years. Vote on all her looks in the slideshow below.
Meanwhile, find out what happened when retailers tried to put Iman Cosmetics at the back of their stores.
Flip through our many other Style Evolutions.
