15 Facts About Norma Kamali

Norma Kamali was born on June 27,1945 and is an American fashion designer and entrepreneur best known for the "Sleeping Bag" Coat, sweats as everyday sportswear, and swimwear.

Norma Kamali worked for Northwest Orient Airlines from 1966 to 1967.

In 1969, Norma Kamali opened a boutique with her then-husband Mohammed Houssein Norma Kamali.

Norma Kamali became known for her line of clothing made of real silk parachute material, which included the innovation of being adjustable in length and fit by draw string.

Norma Kamali designed the red one-piece bathing suit worn by Farrah Fawcett in the iconic 1976 poster and the bathing suit worn by Whitney Houston on the back cover of her 1985 debut album.

Norma Kamali is one of several designers credited with popularizing the shoulder pad in women's wear in the 1980s and played a prominent role in adapting exaggerated shoulder pads to casual clothes at the beginning of the eighties shoulder-pad era in 1978.

Norma Kamali reached a peak of fame during the early 1980s with her 1980 "Sweats" collection, a variety of casual garments done in sweatshirt fabric, most famously flounced, hip-yoked miniskirts called rah-rah skirts in the UK, a style she had first presented in other fabrics in 1979.

Norma Kamali's work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Norma Kamali was the first designer to create an online store on eBay.

In 2021, Norma Kamali published a memoir entitled I Am Invincible.

In 1981, Norma Kamali won a Coty Award, called the "Winnie" but formally titled the American Fashion Critics' Award.

Norma Kamali received the CFDA Board of Directors Special Tribute Award in 2005, and was awarded the CFDA Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, which was presented to her by Michael Kors.

In 2019, Norma Kamali received the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Pioneer Award at the United Nations.

In 2010, Norma Kamali received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Norma Kamali got engaged to her longtime partner, Marty Edelman, in 2020.