Norma Kamali on Longevity, Creativity, and Finding Your Purpose
Naked Beauty
The Naked Beauty Podcast
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 20 October 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Norma Kamali is a fashion innovator and true icon, and today, she’s sharing lessons from her remarkable life with the Naked Beauty audience. Norma and I discussed her early days of bringing vintage clothing from London to New York, the creation of innovative designs like the Sleeping Bag Coat and high-heeled sneaker, and her philosophy of making women feel great through fashion. We also into Norma's upbringing, her path-defining experiences, and her wellness routines that keep her vibrant at 80. Norma’s story underscores the importance of purpose, creativity, and self-care in navigating life’s challenges, and she provides such wise advice about longevity, relationships, and finding your true calling.
Tune in for:
(03:07) Norma’s experience growing up in Manhattan
(07:50) The fashion and beauty icons Norma looked up to as a young woman
(11:47) Norma’s early travels to London
(22:42) Establishing her own label
(27:52) Starting over after divorce
(33:02) Norma’s advice for discovering purpose and clarity in life
(37:43) Norma’s wellness routines
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Follow Norma Kamali @NormaKamali
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Does that make me crazy? |
| 0:04.6 | Hello, hello, this is Brooke DeVard and you're listening to the Naked Beauty |
| 0:09.8 | podcast. I am beyond excited to introduce today's guest Norma Kamali. |
| 0:16.5 | Norma Kamali is a true icon with over 50 years of experience in the fashion industry and the beauty industry I learned in today's episode. |
| 0:23.6 | I'm sure many of you are familiar with her namesake brand, Norma Kamali. |
| 0:28.1 | But if you're not familiar, here's some background. |
| 0:30.5 | Norma Kamali began her business in 1967 as a shop owner. |
| 0:34.3 | And she started her clothing career, bringing back vintage clothing that she was finding in London and bringing it all the way back to New York City. And then she eventually |
| 0:41.5 | transitioned into making and selling her own designs. Her entire goal as an entrepreneur was to |
| 0:46.5 | have the freedom to be creative and then use that creativity to design styles for women that would |
| 0:51.2 | ultimately make them feel great. Norma is a true innovator in the |
| 0:54.8 | space, the sleeping bag coat, iconic, the high-heeled sneaker. She also popularized at leisure and |
| 1:01.2 | fashion. We owe so much to Norma Kamali. She's of course extremely well regarded in the industry. |
| 1:06.5 | She's won the CFDA Special Tribute Award and the CFDA Jeffrey Bean Lifetime Achievement Award. |
| 1:11.8 | She has an amazing story. As she was telling me her story, I was like, this feels like a movie. |
| 1:15.9 | I hope that as you guys are listening, maybe you're on a nice long car ride, you've got your |
| 1:19.7 | headphones in, you're on a plane. This episode is one of my all-time favorites because I love |
| 1:26.0 | hearing from people that have these deep |
| 1:28.2 | layered stories and when we can learn from other people's wisdom that is always so powerful to me |
| 1:32.7 | and at 80 years old norma is still dedicated to her fitness routine she is stronger than I am |
| 1:38.5 | her skin care routine her approach to her business and creativity. She's just so vital. Absolutely. People |
| 1:45.7 | throw around the term life goals a lot. She is life goals. I'm so excited for you all to get to hear |
... |
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