Kimora Lee Simmons

Kimora Lee Simmons (born Kimora Lee Perkins on May 4, 1975) 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. She was scheduled to return to the show as a judge starting with cycle 14, however, she changed her plans and will not return to the show as judge.

Early life

Simmons was born in St. Louis, Missouri and is of Asian and African American descent. Although her mother, Joanne Perkins, was born in Korea, she is Japanese. Perkins was adopted by an American serviceman during the Korean War and she now goes by her own mother's Japanese name, Kyoko. Her father, Vernon Whitlock Jr., is African American. He has worked as a Federal Marshal, a Social Security Administrator, and a barber in St. Louis.

Growing up in the northern St. Louis suburb of Florissant, Missouri, Simmons was the target of schoolyard bullying and teasing, because of her height (she was 5 feet, 10 inches tall by the time she was 10 years old) and mixed ancestry. To help Simmons, her mother enrolled her 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.