Norma Kamali: I Am Invincible

by Norma Kamali

Wit and wisdom from the innovative, influential, and empowering wellness guru and designer Norma Kamali   In her first book, fashion legend Norma Kamali offers readers a stylish, inspiring, and heartfelt handbook for gliding boldly through each of life’s decades with purpose and power. Manifesto, memoir, and essential guide, its pages are informed by 50 years of Kamali’s twists, turns, triumphs, and failures experienced while finding the courage and conviction to race after her dreams and never look back.   At 75, Kamali looks—and acts—nearly half her age. The secret, she writes, is learning to age with Embracing a healthy lifestyle and looking forward to every milestone and the changes they bring, with the realization that reaching one’s potential has no date. With wisdom and wit, Kamali imparts her lessons on authentic beauty, timeless style, career-building, fitness, and health through personal stories, worldly insight, and actionable advice designed to help women of every age create their happiest, healthiest, most successful and fulfilling lives.  

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Personal Development, Self Help

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2021

Reviews

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fabulous book about a fascinating life. It's chock-full of insights and inspiration for living a creative life that is long, healthy, and meaningful. I really enjoyed reading this one and will keep it around for future reflection.

[Erica Eastman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a light, quick read and was interesting to hear about Norma’s life and how she looks so incredibly young and is still working into her late 70s. There is a decent amount of repetition here, where she mentions the same things over and over again, I wish the editor had cleaned things up a bit more. I also don’t understand why the book is filled with a skinny white woman wearing Norma’s swimsuits over and over again and the last pages only show a small sample of her clothes on real people and models. This was a missed opportunity to share her creative work, there are no fashion sketches or anything showing her creative vision or process! If the book was going to be just swimsuits at least be inclusive and show different size and ethnicity of women. I wish there had been photos of her clothing and sketches to show off her creative talents better. As it is, pretty boring visually but a decent light read.

[Lillian Mac Minn · Rating 5 out of 5]

inspiring

This book is a great advice from an inspiring woman. I don’t need to follow or agree with everything she recommends, but I there is so many good ideas I think everyone can find something they like and apply in their lives

[Lisa Marsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hello My Love.
This book is a bible for a good life, the @normakamali way. Her "Three Pillars" -- sleep, diet, exercise -- should be what we all follow and let the rest fall into place.
Full disclosure: if there was an inspiration board for my life, Norma Kamali would be on it, larger than life. A dress of her design was the first fashion piece I ever bought in the 1980s when I had no business buying designer fashion pieces. I wore her swimwear with pride forever. And we shared a mutual friend, beloved to us both. Too much about me...
The book... part how-to, part memoir, part self-help. It's not preachy, nor is it pushing product or name drop-ey. There is just the right balance of all of those things, which feels super disciplined.
You can breeze through it in a day or two, but I suspect I will probably tab some pages and turn to it often.

[Gary W Bennington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it, heed it

Read about the book, then read it. Actually very impressed with the supportive advice on self concept and defined purpose. Should also be read by men who want to be successful with women and in their careers. Bought it for my super motivated granddaughter.

[Leonard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is heavy book, but with a lot of large print, apparently written to give readers (mostly women) advice to improve their health. There is a lot of good advice here, but not much of anything new. Some is for the wealthy like getting your teeth professionally cleaned every two weeks. You are advised to avoid smoking, but not because of Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease or Lung Cancer, but because smokers have more wrinkles. But much of this is about appearance. COPD and cancer may not be apparent, but wrinkles definitely will be. The illustrations of a nearly emaciated young women in different awkward positions designed to represent dance moves are inane and pointless. Recommendations to avoid eating sugar and to focus on a plant based diet are worthwhile, and give the book some credibility. If you read it and like what you read go for it. It probably won't hurt you.

[Michaela Gunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read! Especially relevant to women in business and to women in creative fields. A refreshing and empowering take on how to take care of yourself in the modern world. My only critique is there is heavy emphasis on diet and cutting out “toxic” foods and substances, if that’s something you struggle with though it’s relatively easy to skip over those parts. That said, her stories of her career and life are fascinating and effectively illustrate her ideas for how people can live more powerfully and confidently. Her passion for empowering other women to lead joyful and purposeful lives is clear on every page!

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Am Invincible is a very motivating and inspiring read.

It was interesting to learn how ahead of the curve Kamali was in terms of wellness, self-care, ingredients in food and skincare, versatile designs, e-commerce, gender, etc.

The book grew out of a gift book (of personal experiences and advice) that she gave to a friend turning 50. She's woven together autobiographical information and life advice.

The book is visually striking, such that I am tempted to purchase a copy.

I highly recommend!

[Daniela D · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Kamali is an inspiration, the amount of things she has managed to achieve I'm her life is absolutely mind-blowing, I was slightly disappointed with some of the conclusions. Given how much she entertains the idea of researching everything for health and wellbeing, I was surprised to find some statements that were not based on evidence and rather much more driven by the biggest media stir. Most obvious example are GMO foods.
Other than that I admire her commitment to reinvention and to keeping with the most sophisticated trends. It's definitely my biggest learning from the book.

[Renee Bolla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! She is a fashion icon who lives with purpose every day. It is the DNA of her designs and her lifestyle and I continue to be inspired by her work, her words and her impact. I had the pleasure of working with her early in my career while I was a buyer for Walmart.com and to this day that was one of the most monumental moments of my career. One of my favorite quotes from her book, “Look forward to every milestone and the changes it brings with the realization that reaching one’s potential has no date.” I can all relate to this and feel inspired this every morning.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing new or earth-shattering here but I’ll take any chance to look at photos of Norma’s 80s’ output. I didn’t have an actual Kamali but I did have a lookalike and I made my own grey sweatshirt pieces to wear with it you best believe!

As lifestyle advice it doesn’t get much simpler but I too believe some good calisthenics and diet go a long way to making you look and feel your best.

[Haldan McLeod · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite the personality. There is wisdom in here and lots of wit. But, as I’ve found with most books of this genre, it is packed to the seems with filler, filler, and more filler. I’d say half the pages are taken up by a single quote.

[Emily Lilja Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love her attitude. “Aging powerfully” - amen!

[Ashton Dawson Batten · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Norma has lived an incredible life and this book is a beautiful picture of her “how.”

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book- it was so unique and she is so kick ass. Highly recommend.

[Charlene Sessoms · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fabulous and insightful. Thank you Norma for your wisdom.

[Penny Cole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected this to be more of a memoir, but it was mostly her tips on exercise, diet and style.

[Jean Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars..

[Elaine Pasky]

Didn’t finish

[Kent Ellgren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on her life and work.

[Deborah Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norma Kamali is an inspiration...loved this book...wonderful words of wisdom from a gorgeous 75 year old who will never be old.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the overview of her business journey with health & living advice was interesting.

[Robin Tierney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so inspired by this book that I bought copies for two of my friends!

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read. Incredibly moving, authentic, and powerful.

[Silvana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was very good and inspirational. I think that was her intent - to make the book as inspirational as possible. Age really has nothing to do with what you can or cannot do.

I also found the format of the book interesting. Very different.

Norma Kamali is amazing - she is 75 years old?! Amazing!

FYI...I tried her bread recipe - I'm thinking I must have done something wrong because it was not very good. Reminded me of bird seed ;-)

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kamali details her rise in the fashion industry and includes plentiful advice that she learned along the way. She writes in a genuinely upbeat and encouraging, but some of her pieces of wisdom are simply cited as based "on studies that show...". She's interesting, but it would have been a better book if she didn't try to pass off some of the health-related sections as based on science.

[a r g]

taking beauty advice from glamorous old women is my version of "lindy"

[BAHRI Meriem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good -

I love the autobiography part, and I wished that part was longer, with more details. I didn't really like the tips part. That part was like reading a magazine.