Iman Abdulmajid has spoken out against the misconceptions around ageing, revealing her go-to hack during Zoom meetings.
The 67-year-old designer candidly addressed some of the beauty and societal standards that exist in the fashion industry during a recent interview with British Vogue, which features her as the cover star of the magazine’s January 2023 issue.
Iman spoke out in the interview against the pressures that women in her career have faced to to look young and applauded her natural ageing process.
“That’s a very Western mentality,” she said. “I come from Africa, we celebrate getting older. A friend was telling me there’s been a rise in cosmetic surgery, all because [people] have been looking at themselves in Zoom meetings.”
She went on to say she angles her camera during online meetings and emphasised that she’s not worried about getting older.
“I’m like: ‘If you are worried about that, just put the camera up [so it’s tilted down on your face], for God’s sake!’” Iman said. “This really is a mentality rooted in the West. For me, it has never been a problem.”
Over the years, Iman has openly expressed her thoughts about ageing. During an interview with People in November 2021, she shared how grateful she is to get older each year.
“In Africa, we are taught that it’s a privilege to get old. I have never lied about my age,” she said.
She also divulged her stance on cosmetic treatments and gave another tip for Zoom meetings.
“Plastic surgery — I’m not against it, but it’s not for me,” the actor said. “But on Zoom, get yourself good lighting!”
Elsewhere in her interview with British Vogue, Iman noted how she wants to be an advocate for fellow models who feel or felt like they couldn’t speak up.
She even spoke about one incident when she didn’t use her own voice. Iman slammed a 1976 article where Marcia Ann Gillespie, former editor-in-chief of Essence Magazine, referred to the model as “a white woman dipped in chocolate”.
“If there is anything I can say about myself it’s that I have no white blood in me,” she said. “Nobody [else] takes credit for this. This is pure Somali. This is how we look.”
Iman said she didn’t speak to the press about the piece at the time, but he did “have a conversation” with Gillespie about the article.
Also in the Bristish Vogue interview, Iman talked about her husband of 24 years, David Bowie, who died in 2016 due to liver cancer. She said that while she doesn’t take issue with being referred to as the singer’s “wife,” that’s not all that she should be identified as.
“I don’t mind at all being referred to as ‘David Bowie’s wife,’” the Iman Cosmetics founder explained. “But I always remind people that I existed before I met him. And he was also very particular. He never introduced me by saying, ‘Meet my wife.’ He’d always say, ‘Meet Iman, my wife.’ So we both already had our own identity. We were separate but together.”
