Iman is Officially a Fashion Icon

This seems to be the week to be a fashion reality show judge.

Fashion goddess Iman will receive the 2010 CFDA Fashion Icon Award. "Fashion icon," like "supermodel," is a wildly over-used term, but Iman is one of those rare people for whom both terms are absolutely appropriate. Required, even. The New York Times takes a look at her career and bows down appropriately:

"THE supermodel Iman hasn’t walked a runway in 21 years. Yet at almost 55 years old, with that famous Modigliani profile and copper-toned skin, she’s as gorgeous as ever."

Amen.

"That neck, and all that went with it, first captivated top designers when the Somalian beauty, born Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid, was plucked from her university studies in Nairobi by the photographer Peter Beard and brought to New York to model for the likes of Halston and Calvin Klein."

“She has this amazing skin — it sets off color and clothes in a way white women couldn’t do,” Mr. Klein recalled. “On the runway, she exuded style. She was an actress, a natural. She knew how to sell the clothes better than anybody.”

"The choice of Iman by the council’s board wasn’t obvious — it’s not as if she is known for her distinctive way of dressing, like the recent honorees Kate Moss (2005) and Sarah Jessica Parker (2004). But the decision seemed to have come almost spontaneously, according to Diane von Furstenberg, the group’s president: 'Somebody, I don’t remember who it was, mentioned Iman’s name at the meeting, and everybody said "Wow." The vote was unanimous.'

The designer Michael Kors, who was at the meeting, said that Iman instantly clicked with the board because she is 'an icon for our times.”

“It’s not just enough to say that she is beautiful or beautifully dressed, although that is a part of the equation,” Mr. Kors said. “Iman cuts across all ages and experiences. Today women are out there trying to juggle and to make sense of it all. You look at the way Iman looks, her success in business, her need to try new things and to have her own point of view and be a wife and mother — well, not many people have come full circle like that.”

Bow down.

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