NEW YORK, May 15, 2009 - US First Lady Michelle Obama is not a "great beauty," but will "just get better with age," Iman, one of the first black supermodels, says in a magazine interview.

Somali-born model Iman said in a magazine interview US First Lady Michelle Obama is not a "great beauty," but will "just get better with age. "(AFP/File/Mandel Ngan)

"Mrs Obama is not a great beauty," the Somali-born model and wife of rocker David Bowie tells Parade magazine's Sunday issue, reflecting on the first black US first lady, who is a lawyer by training and a former executive.

"But she is so interesting looking and so bright. That will always take you farther. When you're a great beauty, it's always downhill for you. If you're someone like Mrs Obama, you just get better with age," she said.

Iman, 53, also told Parade that her rise to catwalk superstardom did not free her from racism.

"You suddenly represent a whole race, and that race goes, Well, that person does not represent our ideals of beauty.' For lack of a better term, it becomes what it was like during slavery," she said.

"One had the field nigger and the house nigger. There was this notion that I was chosen by white fashion editors to be better than the rest, which I am not. I did not like being thought of as the house nigger."