Aoki Lee Simmons defended her mother, the iconic 90s model Kimora Lee Simmons after she wasn’t included in Vogue’s tribute cover to Chanel’s late designer Karl Lagerfeld. The U.S. edition of Vogue is honoring the German designer in its May 2023 cover. It features “ten of the models that Lagerfeld loved most,” which includes Anok Yai, Shalom Harlow, Kendall Jenner, Liu Wen, Adut Akech, Natalia Vodianova, Naomi Campbell, Amber Valletta, Gigi Hadid and Devon Aoki.
The fashion publication unveiled the cover on Tuesday via Instagram. The new body comes as the theme for the 2023 Met Gala is the designer himself. It will mark the opening of the Met Museum’s exhibition “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.”
“Vogue’s May issue is a celebration of Karl Lagerfeld,” the caption reads.
The same day Vogue posted its cover, Aoki Lee Simmons took to Instagram to give her mother her flowers.
“Let us not forget the youngest Chanel bride, Karl muse and his “face of the 21st century” at age 13,” she wrote under a series of photographs showing her mother with Lagerfeld. “Straight from the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of a single mother and first gen immigrant, the maker of the wayyy,” the 20-year-old added. “I’m always so proud of you mom!”
“Karl transformed me. He made me who I am today,” Kimora Lee Simmons told Teen Vogue after the designer’s passing in 2019. “As a young teenager, he pulled me out of a small town in the Midwest and gave me wings to fly. Every other casting agent told me I was ugly and that I didn’t have what it took to succeed in modeling.”
Kimora Lee Simmons says Lagerfeld was one of the first designers to put models of color on the runway.
“Karl saw things in a radically different way than other designers who weren’t willing to risk putting a multiethnic girl on the Parisian runway. That happened 30+ years ago, and the need for inclusivity in fashion is still a part of the conversation today!” she said. “He taught me everything about business, beauty and fashion — how to take risks and how to command a brand. Karl made me a better model, designer, creative director and mother, and I am forever indebted to him, like so many. We’re going to feel this tremendous loss forever.”
