( CNN ) -- `` The moment I got into the modeling industry , I knew I had to be an entrepreneur , '' says former supermodel Iman . One of the most recognized models of the 1970s and '80s , Iman has used her entrepreneurial skills to great effect in the fashion industry , with her own cosmetics business and in her charitable fund-raising work . Married to rock star David Bowie and now residing in New York , Iman was born in Somalia in 1955 . Her father was an ambassador , but her comfortable upbringing was disrupted in 1969 with the assassination of Somalia 's president , forcing her and her family to flee to Kenya . `` We left Somalia with nothing but the clothes on our back . Not even photographs , nothing . So it 's a total loss of everything and a total loss of your own self , your own country , your own place in terms of your people . If you 're lucky you 're in a country that will give you a second chance , '' she told CNN . She was lucky and her adopted home of Kenya provided her with a scholarship at Nairobi University , and it was also in the Kenyan capital that she was discovered as a model . Stopped on a Nairobi street by fashion photographer Peter Beard , she was soon signed by a top model agency and moved to New York in 1975 . With her exotic looks she caused a stir in the fashion world , helped in part by a fanciful story about her background spread by Beard . `` They wanted to believe because it 's kind of like 'My Fair Lady ' . Everything about that article was fabricated ... I was discovered herding goats and discovered in the jungle ; I 've never seen the jungle in my life . I was a city girl , '' she said . Iman admits she was complicit in the fabrication , suggesting an early realization that the fashion industry was built around control and manipulation . `` I had to be very clever about not over exposing myself , not under exposing myself . I had to make sure that I knew my worth that I would not settle if they gave me less . I knew how to walk away . It 's very key . '' After facing numerous challenges being a black model , she launched Iman Cosmetics in 1994 , designed for models no matter the color of their skin . A hugely successful catwalk career as a model ended in 1989 , but she faced up to the transitory nature of her career and gained a greater sense of self long before that when she was injured in a car accident in 1983 . `` Where everything was about what you do and about how you look , it changed to more security about me . It was not about 'how will I look ten years from now ? ' It all became about what kind of person would I be ten years from now . `` Because of it I became very comfortable in my own skin . In a weird way I did n't think about outward looks anymore , '' she said .
Former supermodel David Bowie now has own multi -million dollar cosmetics business . Discovered by photographer Iman in Somalia ; married to Iman . Organizes fund-raising events for charities including , Keep A Child Alive . `` Iman : The moment I got into the modeling industry , I knew I had to be an entrepreneur ''