Kimora Lee Simmons

Kimora Lee Simmons, the rising star of fashion

If there's one thing I can describe Kimora Lee is that she's one amazing woman. She designs, directs, models, and is a very savvy businesswoman and mother of two pretty kids. She's on top of the game.

Kimora's Early Life:

Kimora is of Korean, Japanese and African-American descent.[1] Her parents are Korean American/Japanese American Joanne Perkins (who was adopted by an American serviceman during the Korean War and renamed Joanne Perkins) and African-American father Vernon Whitlock Jr. is a former social security administrator.

Growing up in the north St. Louis suburb of Florissant, Kimora was very self-conscious about being a "geek." Other children called her "c___ giraffe" because of her height and Asian ancestry.

By the time she was 10 years old, she was 5-foot 8-inches tall, and became the target of schoolyard taunts and teasing. Hoping to boost her confidence, Simmons's mother enrolled her daughter in a modeling class when she was eleven years old. Two years later, at the age of thirteen, Simmons was awarded an exclusive modeling contract with Chanel and just after her fourteenth birthday, she left for Paris to work under the tutelage of famed Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld.

She gained attention in the fashion world in the 1990s when Lagerfeld closed his haute couture show with Simmons, who strutted down the runway decked out as a child bride. By age 14, her stature had grown to a height of six feet, and she became a self-professed muse for Lagerfeld.

Kimora is a graduate of Lutheran North High School in St. Louis, Missouri in 1993.

In 1998, she married entrepeneur and Def Jam president Russell Simmons. The Simmons' have two daughters; Ming Lee Simmons (born January 21,2000) and Aoki Lee Simmons (born August 16, 2002). Both Ming Lee and Aoki Lee model for Baby Phat Kids Collection along with Kimora's cousins from Willingboro, New Jersey .

Russell Simmons filed for divorce in March 2006, after seven years of marriage, saying the couple had split some time before.

As of May 2007, Simmons has officially been dating actor/model Djimon Hounsou. They are often spotted together with her two young daughters.

Kimora's official website:

http://www.kimoraleesimmons.com/

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