Girl, Mom, Diva : Kimora Lee Simmons

People like Kimora were always destined to have daughters. A supermodel in the haven of glitz and glam with a fabulous love for fashion, then she had 2 mini hers to share that world with. Ugh, a girl's dream ! There’s a certain essence of femininity to being a girl mom and it made so much sense that Kimora was chosen to extend that femininity through giving life. 

Kimora is not only the mother of Ming Lee and Aoki Lee, she is the Mother of Y2K fashion. Trust me, that is not an overstatement, Baby Phat ? The major cultural phenomenon that launched in 1999 as a women's focused fashion brand. She blended luxury,street wear and hip hop culture and was the best to do it. The themes in the brand were heavily for the girls, focusing on rhinestones, gems, velour tracksuits and feline branding. Those are not nachos that can be reheated but the recipe is definitely peeked at till this day. As a 6 foot African-American, Japanese and Korean woman she made a huge cultural impact making women feel fabulous globally. 

Her whole shtick was “fabulosity” which got cemented into pop-culture. Balancing being a businesswoman, mother and always staying camera ready. Many wondered what her life was like, how does she diva that hard ? We got to see her life with her daughters in the reality TV series’ Kimora: House of Fab and Kimora: Life in the Fast Lane. Looking back now you can see how much Kimora loves being a mother. In the shows, we see her children wearing clothes bigger than them and laughing in our faces because they know their future wardrobe was about to be vintage and archive goodness. Even though Kimora was a young mom, she reacted how any mother would when their daughter gets their first blowout, bursting into tears and envisioning them getting married. It was so endearing to see the girls replicate their moms mannerisms and how much they did not play about her.

You can tell that Kimora brought Aoki and Ming up in fierceness and confidence. They knew who they were from the day they were born. They took one look at the face card looking down at them and knew what they had to do. They both grew up to become beautiful models just like their mama, what a legacy. 

This was actually my wakeup call to start building my wardrobe for my future daughters. Like I want them to be asked, “omg where did you get that?” and they answer “from my moms closet, sorry they don’t make this no more,#vintage thank yaa”. 

Written by Essie Francis