Kimora Lee Simmons (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Kimora Lee Simmons (born Kimora Perkins on May 3, 1975 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a former fashion model and the head of design for Baby Phat.

Simmons is the daughter of a Japanese-American mother Joanne Perkins and African American father, Vernon Whitlock, Jr., a former federal marshall who after serving time in jail, is now a barber in St. Louis.

Kimora began her modeling career at age 13. By the age of 10, she had grown to a height of 5 feet, 10 inches. By age 14, she had grown to a height of six feet, and became a self-professed muse for Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld. As a child she was very self-conscious about being biracial. Working as a model, however, her ethnic background made her stand out. She is a graduate of Lutheran North High School in St. Louis County, Missouri.

On December 20, 1998, she married hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. The Simmons' have two daughters: Ming Lee Simmons, born January 21, 2000, and Aoki Lee Simmons, born August 16, 2002, both of whom model for Baby Phat Kids Collection. Russell Simmons filed for divorce in March 2006, saying the couple had split some time before.

Contrary to popular belief, Kimora Lee Simmons is not the founder of the Baby Phat brand. Her husband Russell actually founded the company himself as a counterpart to his Phat Farm clothing line and named Kimora as creative director for the line.

She was cast as one of the celebrity judges on the reality series America's Next Top Model. A duel with Janice Dickinson (in which Dickinson was severely lacerated about the neck) forced her to leave the show after one season.

On July 29, 2004, Simmons was arrested outside her estate in Upper Saddle River, NJ and charged with possession of marijuana under 50 grams, eluding police, careless and imprudent driving, and driving with a broken brake light. The arrest was made after a two-mile chase that began near the Saddle River Police Station.

Her first and thus far only book, Fabulosity, published by Judith Regan of Simon & Shuster's Regan Books, was released on February 21, 2006. Recently, Simmons has designed a new line of jewelry, called the Hello Kitty Collection. Simmons used the Sanrio Hello Kitty logo on the face of all of these new accessories.

Other media

Kimora Lee is a playable character in the Playstation2 video game Def Jam Fight for NY.

She appeared in the films Waist Deep and Beauty Shop. , and also in Ginuwine's video In Those Jeans.

See also

• List of famous tall women

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