Kimora Lee Simmons

Kimora Lee Simmons is an American fashion designer, television personality, and former fashion model. She is best known for founding the global lifestyle brand Baby Phat, her high-fashion modeling career with luxury houses such as Chanel, and her starring roles in reality television series.

Simmons was born Kimora Lee Perkins in St. Louis, Missouri, to an African-American father and a Japanese-Korean mother, and was raised in the suburb of Florissant. Facing childhood bullying due to her height—reaching 5'10" by age ten—and her multiethnic background, she was enrolled in modeling classes at age eleven by her mother. At age thirteen, she was discovered at a Kansas City model search by agent Marie-Christine Kollock and sent to Paris. She graduated from Lutheran North High School and later earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business and Entrepreneurial Affairs from the University of Hartford in 2018.

Her modeling career began when she signed an exclusive contract with Chanel at age thirteen, working closely with designer Karl Lagerfeld as a mentor and muse. After closing the 1989 Chanel haute couture show as "The Bride," she walked runways for fashion houses including Fendi, Valentino, Emanuel Ungaro, and Yves Saint Laurent, while appearing on covers and pages of magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Elle.

In 1999, Simmons launched Baby Phat as a women's wear off-shoot of Phat Farm, founded by her then-husband Russell Simmons. Debuting at New York Fashion Week, Baby Phat grew into a major global lifestyle brand offering apparel, accessories, and fragrances. Simmons later served as president and creative director of Phat Fashions. After parting ways with the company in 2010, she served as president and creative director of JustFab from 2011 to 2015, and launched her upscale designer line, KLS by Kimora Lee Simmons, in 2015. She reacquired and relaunched Baby Phat in 2019.

Simmons's business endeavors also include investments in brands such as Codage, Pureform Global, Celsius, and the Beverly Hills spa Pellequr. In media, she co-hosted One World Music Beat, judged season one of America's Next Top Model, and authored the 2006 book Fabulosity: What It Is & How to Get It. She earned a Tony Award in 2003 for producing Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. Her reality television career includes starring in Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane (2007–2011), Kimora: House of Fab (2013), and Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane (2025–present).

In her personal life, Simmons was married to Russell Simmons from 1998 to 2009, with whom she has two daughters. She had a son with Djimon Hounsou in 2009, married Tim Leissner in 2014 (with whom she had a son in 2015 before their later estrangement), and adopted a son in 2020. Her philanthropic work spans contributions to PETA, UN Women, FIT, amfAR, and humanitarian efforts supporting refugees and disaster relief.