Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Mar. 16--Kimora Lee Simmons is calling from her home in Los Angeles, while her 3-year-old daughter Aoki Lee is in the background bellowing something about lemons she's picked from a tree on their West Coast grounds.
"She's making lemonade," Simmons explains, apologizing for the interruption. "It's for her lemonade stand. She's selling it for $5."
That sounds like a lot for lemonade, but, Simmons says, laughing, "We're in Beverly Hills!"
And, more importantly, Simmons is teaching her youngest daughter the value of getting paid handsomely for the work that she does, a principle her mother has become quite the spokeswoman for lately.
"We start 'em early around here," Simmons, 30, says, laughing again.
Like mother, like daughter.
In her recently released book, Fabulosity: What It Is & How to Get It, Simmons -- the ultra-rich designer, fashion model and business-owner wife of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons -- tells readers how she started out on the runways of Paris at the very young age of 13, and barreled her way to the top of the fashion and merchandising world.
She was feisty and unapologetic. She was take-charge and opinionated. She was half-black, half-Japanese, 6 feet tall, and power-hungry.
She was fabulous.
It was those traits and more, the book says, that cleared the way for Simmons to achieve success at almost every level of the fashion and beauty industry. Her clothing line, Baby Phat, is its own urban empire -- from sneakers to jeans to sexy, high-end pieces. She's got her own diamond-encrusted cell phone, a blinged-out jewelry collection and her own fragrance, Goddess by Kimora Lee Simmons.
This fall, she plans to launch a full line of Kimora Lee cosmetics at Sephora stores. A home collection and a doll and accessories line aren't far down the road. A reality show about her hectic life is taping even now.
Simmons got her sights set high -- and modern women, she says, should too.
"My life is not any different than any other woman's life," Simmons says. "My situations may be magnified, but I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I'm a business woman. I juggle lots of things. The idea of Fabulosity is 'all things fabulous,' regardless of your social or economical level. Because whatever your situation is in life, it's about making it better by believing in yourself."
Interestingly enough, Simmons is taking her message to very unassuming places -- she'll be at Karibu Books in Security Square Mall on Tuesday for a meet-and-greet and book signing -- because, even as a multi-millionaire, she says, she identifies with everyday women in such places as Baltimore and Philadelphia.
After all, Simmons grew up in working class St. Louis, Mo. Too-tall and biracial to boot, she was teased by classmates. But her single mother raised her to stand even taller and embrace her uniqueness.
"Growing up in the Midwest it definitely helped me understand where a lot of my audience is coming from," she says. "When they're telling me they feel left out, I understand. It's a common story that a lot of young women have in some way or another."
But there's a way to be "in," Simmons says. And Fabulosity is a how-to guide on just that topic.
In the 260-page book of tips and memoirs, she chattily explores ways to achieve an exhausting list of lofty goals: Carve a path to success. Create a stylish and powerful image. Excel professionally. Nurture romantic relationships. Develop a luxurious and rewarding lifestyle. Embrace your inner Glamazon (glamorous, foxy Amazon warrior woman).
Many of her techniques for success involve dressing well, wearing the right makeup, eating healthy, having the right social group. (Marrying a mogul helps too, we assume.)
But much of it, too, has to do with being pro-woman -- Kimora-style.
"I'm the opposite of everything the etiquette books always said about the little girls being seen but not heard, and it's a key to my success," she writes in the book. "In fashion, in entertainment, in hip-hop, following that kind of ... advice will make you only one thing: completely forgotten."
Simmons' flamboyantly feminist attitude is something Baltimore women can get a lot out of, says Lee McDonald, marketing director for Karibu, which recently opened at Security Square, the first in the Baltimore area.
"I think it's going to be beneficial to the community because of different aspects that Kimora brings," McDonald says. "It's not just looking fabulous; it's that business aspect as well, running companies. She has some real self-motivating [advice] in her book."
Simmons says she knows that most women will not have closets full of Versace and Louis Vuitton and homes on two coasts. But she wants to pass a sense of empowerment and entitlement on to them anyway -- the same way she encouraged her daughter to sell lemonade at champagne prices.
"My mom told me to be the best at whatever it is you choose to do," she says. "Whatever it is you want personally for yourself -- whether it's stay at home and raise your kids or stay at home and don't have any kids, or marry well, or take on the world and conquer it. Whatever you want to do, do it to the fullest."
-----
Copyright (c) 2006, The Baltimore Sun
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
Paris:12101,
