Iman: Superwoman

The photographer Peter Beard deserves credit for discovering Iman in 1975, when she was a student at the Univeristy of Nairobi. Then again, who could miss her? Yves Saint Laurent once called the Somali-born polyglot “perfection.” She’s 54, and the judgment still stands. Iman gave up modeling in 1989 and now helms a cosmetics company that grossed a reported $25 million in the United States last year. She lives with her husband, David Bowie, in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. “It’s a perfect place for my husband,” she says. “Everyone’s dressed better than he is, and they all think they’re stars — so no one bothers him. (New York Times magazine)