The One & Only Iman

The Somali supermodel talks to Lydia Slater about her marriage to David Bowie, her new life in the countryside and feeling comfortable with getting older.

- Lydia Slater

Under normal circumstances, I would have been daunted by the prospect of meeting Iman.

For one thing, the statuesque entrepreneur, philanthropist and supermodel has a reputation for plain speaking. Furthermore, I’m labouring under a good deal of emotional baggage, since my bedroom as a teenager was plastered with posters of David Bowie, Iman’s husband until his untimely death in 2016. (I seem to recall actually weeping when they got married, though I was consoled by the thought that he had chosen a worthy consort, even if I were not she…)

Yet, within moments of seeing Iman appear on my screen, a pair of stern glasses perched on her nose, and dressed with simple elegance in a black Loro Piana turtleneck, we’re chatting as if we have known each other for years.

The first thing that strikes me, of course, is her extraordinary, ageless beauty; she’s 65, but looks 20 years younger, which she attributes to her lockdown weight gain. “It kind of softens all the edges... But I’m African, and we’ve never been scared of ageing. It’s a privilege, you know.”