Willi Smith
1948-1987
Willi Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA in 1948. He studied fashion at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art and in 1964 won a scholarship to Parsons School of Design in New York. He was of African-American descent.
He graduated in 1968 and became a freelance knitwear designer. He worked for New York designer Arnold Scaasi in the mid-1970's.
In 1976, he opened WilliWear, his Sportswear company. He said that he wanted to plug the gap between Jeans and stiff evening wear. One of his jackets decorated with graffiti-style print is shown on the right.
His oversized clothing anticipated the casual styles and attitudes of the following decades: baggy trousers and shorts, slouchy sweaters and generously proportioned shirts. Nowadays the rap style is almost identical to the designs which he started in the 1970's and 1980's.
His colours and fabrics were bright and easily mixed together. On the left is a Metallic jump-set included in his collection in 1973.
In 1983, Willi Smith won the coveted Coty Award.
Willi was a good friend of the singer Madonna in the 1980's and she still remembers him affectionately.
In 1985, he created the uniforms worn by workings draping the Pont Neuf for Christo's artwork. In 1987 he designed the clothes worn at the wedding of Caroline Kennedy, President Kennedy's daughter.
Willi Smith's moderately priced clothes tended to be exuberant and youthful. He made slouchy blazers, long full dirndle skirts, oversize shirts, dhoti pants and tank tops. His evening clothes were peppy such as pouf-skirted dresses with slits as high as the waist, or with racing-back necklines.
Many of his garments are nowadays found on vintage clothing outlets, on the net and in shops. They are quite popular. On the right is a cotton padded three quarter length warm coat with toggle buttons, from the mid-1980's, on sale today. It has his trademark graffiti print on the inside.
His sister Tookie Smith, born in 1954, is an actress. She had twin boys by a surrogate. She had a relationship with actor Robert de Niro for some time.
Several young designers worked with Willi, one of whom in 1986 was Anthony Mark Hankins, an African-American Texan designer, now coming into prominence. James Mischka (partner in Badgley-Mischka design house) worked under Willi Smith from 1985 to 1986. John Bartlett took over the design when Willi Smith died, and remained till 1990.
Willi Smith died of complications of AIDS in 1987. At that time it was a relatively unknown disease and there was no cure. People with a gay lifestyle were most at risk till the 1990's when the medical profession understood AIDS better. His company continued to function after his death, opening it's first store in New York on Fifth Avenue in 1988.
Courtesy of
www.designerhistory.com
