Willi Smith
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Willi Donnell Smith (February 29, 1948-April 17, 1987) was one of the most successful African-American fashion designers in fashion history. At its peak, his company Williwear Ltd. sold $25 million worth of clothing a year. Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied commercial art at Mastbaum Technical High School and attended Philadelphia College of Art for fashion Illustration. He decided to become a designer and moved to New York to go to Parsons School of Design. for a short time Smith freelanced with Arnold Scassi and Bobbie Brooks sportswear company In 1997 he quit Parsons to pursue a career designing on his own. In 1969 he designed a label for Digits, a sportswear company. In 1973, Smith along with his sister Toukie founded their own clothing company that soon failed. Smith continued to design and in 1976 he went into business with Laurie Mallet and called the company "Williwear."
He designed the wedding dress worn by Mary Jane Watson when she married Peter Parker in the Spider-Man comic book and comic strip in 1987 and the suits for Edwin Schlossberg and his groomsmen when he married Caroline Kennedy in 1986. Smith also designed the uniforms for the workers on Christo's 1985 wrapping of the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris and clothes for Spike Lee 's 1987 film School Daze (1987).
Smith died unexpectedly at the relatively young age of 39 after contracting shigella and pneumonia whileon a trip to India, apparently as a result of AIDS. It is suspected that Smith, himself, didn't know he had the disease although those around him knew he was fragile in the end days. Most thought it was just that Smith had pushed himself so hard being such a perfectionist with his work. Smith worked with many other designers and artists during his time at Williwear including Anthony Mark Hankins, James Mischka, Julia Santos-Solomon, Jon Coffelt, John Bartlett and Andre Walker among many others. Smith partnered with Jhane Barnes on some of his earlier shows. John Bartlett who was working at the time of Smith's untimely death took over design operations and remained until 1990.
Smith was the costume designer for "Secret Pastures" which premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival in 1984, one of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company's first major works, featured sets by Keith Haring, music by Peter Laurence Gordon.
Smith has a panel in the original NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and is also lamented in a poem "Speak: A Poem for the Millennium March by Keith Boykin, read by its author for the Millennium March on Washington for Equality on April 29, 2000.
He is the brother of actress and model Toukie Smith.
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[edit] Quotes
- "I don't design clothes for the Queen, but for the people who wave at her as she goes by."
- "Being black has a lot to do with my being a good designer. My eye will go quicker to what a pimp is wearing than to someone in a gray suit and tie. Most of these designers who have to run to Paris for color and fabric combinations should go to church on Sunday in Harlem. It's all right there."
- Models pose in clothes. People live in them [1]
[edit] Awards
- Smith earned two scholarships to attend Parsons School of Design in 1965.
- In 1983 Smith won a Coty American Fashion Critics' Award for women's fashion.
- Smith won a Cutty Sark Award for Men's Fashion in 1985.
- Honored with a bronze plaque for Fashion Walk of Fame along Seventh Avenue in 2000-2002
[edit] Links
- [2] GLBTQ Culture
[edit] External links
- glbtq entry
- Willi Smith bio
- John Bartlett -designer for Williwear until 1990
- Julia Santos-Solomon -collaborated with Willi Smith
- New York Times obit
