The 68-year-old star has become an icon in the modeling industry since she was discovered by an agent during her university days but recalled that she had no idea what she was doing at her first show.
“My first show was for Halston. Talk about being put in an arena that you’re not prepared [for]. I mean, I literally did not know anything. Halston had this studio, this very famous studio. The whole thing was a mirror. The walls were mirrored, the ceiling was mirrored, the floors were mirrored. I’d never worn heels in my life, I was scared to death,” she told InStyle magazine. “And [the show was] in his showroom. So it was like three rooms, all mirrored. I walked the first room, terrified, walked the second room, and now I got a little bit confident, and I thought, Oh, there is a third room. There were only two rooms, I walked right into a mirror. ”
Meanwhile, the ‘Exit to Eden’ star was then asked what her “biggest challenge” had been since she started out and she admitted it had been speaking up about trying to get equal pay as a Black woman.
“It’s speaking out. I came into the industry, although [I was only] 19, but I was fully formed about my worth before I came in, as an African girl … coming from where I come from, Somalia, and all that. One thing that my parents instilled in me, especially as a girl, was that self-worth is key … relationships, jobs, it doesn’t matter. If it doesn’t serve you well, it doesn’t treat you well, just walk away from it. And walking away never means you’re losing something. So I came in having that, at least, in my pocket,” the beauty who was married to David Bowie explained.
“The first thing that was thrown at me was that I wasn’t going to be paid the same amount as the caucasian models. And I was like, “Wait, what? And why?” And they were like, “Well, that’s how it is; that’s what the clients say.” And I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to do this.’ And I walked away, literally. I told the agent, ‘I’m not interested in the Black and White issue. I am more interested in that if I am doing the same service that the White model is doing, I expect the same payment. And because I was able to walk away, I didn’t work for three months, I said no to everything.”
