Norma Kamali has a very distinct memory of turning 20.

“My mother said to me, ‘Norma, it’s all downhill from here,’” she recalled, “and I started to cry. I thought, ‘Oh my god, I am getting old now—and I don’t want to get old. I don’t want to look and behave like that.’”

Fast forward 55 years, and Kamali has a place in American fashion history, having defined facets of American style, broken barriers, and defied all norms associated with aging. Being in the company of Norma is informative and inspiring, and always an invaluable education. Now, she has channeled her history and knowledge into a book, her first, which merges memoir with manifesto and guidebook. Its title, I am Invincible, couldn’t be more apt.

“We all have periods of feeling invincible but this can slip away very easily,” she said. “The secret is to see how we can extend this because when we are feeling invincible, we can do great things.”

She considers the book “a handbook on aging with power.”

For Kamali, age and the experience that comes with each decade are powerful assets, and she focused the book on those experiences.

“A lot of them are about who I am as a designer in the fashion industry,” she told me on a Zoom call last week, “how I was married to an Iranian and the different cultures; how I felt through my 20s when I was struggling and nobody knew who I was; how I was making a name for myself while having to survive; the ups and downs through my business, and cultural shifts that were happening in the world.”

She shares these through the lens of “how to age with power and survival.” This being Norma—an early pioneer of healthy living with a new line of wellness products called NORMALIFE – she laces the stories with tips for a healthy lifestyle, which starts with believing in the power of one’s authentic self.

“For many decades, the beauty and fashion industries described what beautiful and what fashionable was,” Kamali said. “They were putting us all in boxes by age, body type, by skin color, by everything. I know that if you’re healthy and you invest in your authentic self, your authentic beauty, and your authentic style, the survival rate is greater than trying to be like somebody else – somebody you are told is beautiful.”

Through each of Kamali’s decades, the book features information on aging with power.

“There are many times the reader can come back to the book and refer to a specific time and refresh the references to can be expected and how to deal with it,” she noted.

“Having someone older to share experiences and to share what can be is really helpful,” Kamali added. “I look at people for inspiration. There was a woman who was 102; she died recently. She was a yoga instructor and did all the things I love to do. I always thought in my head, ‘I want to live past 100, and I want to keep doing this.’ And then I see her, and I say, ‘Oh well, I am not just saying this. I see that I can do that.”

She is hoping to inspire this sentiment and empower women of all generations with the book.

The process of writing the book has taught Kamali something new about herself that she didn’t expect at the beginning of the project: “How much I have become like my mother who I always thought was a bit eccentric.”

We can’t wait for the book’s release in February. Preorder it here!