It's a tactic which has propelled her from being the only child of a single mother growing up in St Louis, Missouri, to becoming a Chanel runway model at 13, girlfriend (and subsequent wife) of hip hop mogul Russell Simmons at 17 and now president and creative director of the online fashion website, JustFab.
As she herself explains: 'I'm very determined, honest, open and definitely very energetic. I expect a lot as a boss and I'm very demanding, but I ask that of myself too.'
Doting mother: Kimora Lee Simmons, seen here in
2009 at a New York Fashion show with daughers Ming and Aoki, from her
marriage to Russell Simmons and son Kenzo from her relationship with
Dijmon Hounsou
'After Life in the Fab Lane [Kimora's previous show] which had sprinklings of my family life in it, I really wanted to show the workings of an office and how a team works together to build a brand,' she says, altogether softer and more quiet than her on-screen persona. 'It's like The Office,' she says, referring to the Ricky Gervais-inspired series, 'but a lot more organised.'
Husband No.2: Kimora and Dijmon, who she split from last year
Part of her appeal to women lies in her self-confidence and her positive body image (admittedly not difficult to muster when you're as striking as she is), 'but I've faced rejection time and time again and I've been lots of different sizes,' she says.
'I've had times when I've been much bigger and much smaller so that you could see my ribs and I look back at some pictures and it was awful to me. But it's all OK because I'm comfortable with myself now. It's about being healthy and active and having a crazy schedule and running after my three kids, so I probably eat very sporadically – lots of smaller meals and snacks. It's just about having an active lifestyle.'
Keeping busy and juggling various balls is part of Kimora's mantra of 'fabulosity' – a term she famously coined to describe the art of 'being fabulous from the inside out', in every arena from work to romantic relationships to one's inner being and outer appearance.
It has spawned books (Fabulosity: What It Is and How to Get It) and perfumes (Baby Phat Fabulosity) and, says Kimora, 'I came up with that phrase many years ago and people just seem to love it. It's about knowing that we come with so much that is already fabulous but knowing also that we can always improve and be better.
'It's not about how skinny you are or how much money or how many diamonds you have – that's the fluff that people sometimes look at as being the main thing. It's about understanding that the things that make you fabulous are all inside of you.'
Granted, Kimora has a great deal of fabulous exterior fluff to be chuffed about too. She was once believed to have one of the largest Louis Vuitton collections in the world – second only to, well, Louis Vuitton – and though she's all for inner fabulosity, it doesn't stop her being president of an online fashion store selling shoes and bags for outer fabulosity too. But then, if the trappings of her life aren't bad, she has also worked incredibly hard to get there.
Charting her fashion empire: Seen here in her
latest reality show House Of Fab, which just finished airing in the U.S.
on the Style Network and is now airing in the UK
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