Willi Smith

Willi Smith

Willi Donnell Smith (February 29, 1948-April 17, 1987) was one of the most successful young fashion designers in fashion history.citation |title= Willi Smith, Clothes Designer; Creator of Vivid Sportswear |last=James |first=George |date=1987-04-19 |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEEDA173EF93AA25757C0A961948260 |accessdate=2007-09-19 |publisher=New York Times] At the time of his death, his company Williwear Ltd. sold $25 million worth of clothing a year.citation |title=Smith, Willi |last=Rapp |first=Linda |year=2002 |url=http://www.glbtq.com/arts/smith_w.html |accessdate=2007-09-19 |periodical=glbtq.com]

Biography

Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and studied commercial art at Mastbaum Technical High School and attended Philadelphia College of Art for fashion illustration. He then moved to New York to go to Parsons School of Design. For a short time Smith freelanced with Arnold Scassi and Bobbie Brooks's sportswear company.

Career

In 1967, Smith 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 Smith, 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 film "School Daze" (1987).

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.

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.

Death

Smith died unexpectedly at the relatively young age of 39 after contracting shigella and pneumonia while on 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.Fact|date=September 2007 Most thought it was just that Smith had pushed himself so hard being such a perfectionist with his work.Fact|date=September 2007 John Bartlett, who was working at the time of Smith's untimely death, took over design operations and remained until 1990.

Smith, who was openly gay,citation |title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience |last=Gates |first=Henry Louis |last2=Appiah |first2=Anthony |year=1999 |publisher=Basic Civitas Books |isbn=0465000711] 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.

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."

Awards

* Smith earned two scholarships to attend Parsons School of Design in 1965.
* In 1983 he won an American Fashion Critics' Coty Award for women's fashion.
* Smith won a Cutty Sark Award for Men's Fashion in 1985.
* He was honored with a bronze plaque for Fashion Walk of Fame along Seventh Avenue in 2000-2002.

References

External links

* [http://www.historyofashion.com/historyofashion/smithw.html Willi Smith bio]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Smith–Magenis syndrome — Classification and external resources ICD 9 758.33 OMIM 182290 DiseasesDB …   Wikipedia

  • Willi Plett — Kanada Willi Plett Personenbezogene Informationen Geburtsdatum 7. Juni 1955 Geburtsort Asunción, Paraguay …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Smith-Magenis-Syndrom — Klassifikation nach ICD 10 Q93.5 Sonstige Deletionen eines Chromosomenteils …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Smith, Willi — (1948 1987)    Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Smith started his career as a designer of casual sportswear for companies such as Digits and Bobbi Brooks in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He opened WilliWear Limited in 1976 and was one of the …   Historical Dictionary of the Fashion Industry

  • William Smith — All people who go by Bill, Billy, Willie, William, Will Smith, or any other variation are listed on this page. For the college in Geneva, New York, William Smith College.People* Bill Smith (Edmonton mayor) (born 1935) * Bill Smith (Red Green Show …   Wikipedia

  • Toukie Smith — Toukie A. Smith (born Doris Smith April 251955 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), is an African American actress and model. Smith is the sister of late fashion designer Willi Smith and former long term partner of actor Robert De Niro, with whom she… …   Wikipedia

  • Prader–Willi syndrome — Prader Willi syndrome Classification and external resources ICD 10 Q87.1 ICD 9 759.81 …   Wikipedia

  • David Smith (race walker) — David ( Dave ) Gregory Smith (born 24 July 1955) is a retired male race walker from Australia, who represented his native country at two consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1980 (Moscow, USSR). His best Olympic result was finishing in tenth… …   Wikipedia

  • Prader-Willi-Syndrom — Klassifikation nach ICD 10 Q87.1 Angeborene Fehlbildungssyndrome, die vorwiegend mit Kleinwuchs einhergehen (inkl.: Prader Willi Syndrom) …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Granny Smith — Herkunft Australien, 1868 Kreuzung aus vermutlich Malus sylvestris × Malus domestica …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”