Willi Smith remembered: the designer who introduced streetwear to the catwalk
He invented streetwear, was the most high-profile black fashion designer of the 80s and influenced a generation, yet fashion history has largely forgotten Willi Smith. That is all about to change with a new book celebrating the designer, who died in 1987.
“The lack of scholarship on Willi Smith created a missing link in our understanding of contemporary fashion and visual culture,” says Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, curator of the Willi Smith: Street Couture exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.
His label, Williwear, was ahead of its time: mixing the relaxed fit of sportswear with high-end elements of tailoring. His clothes were not meant to be untouchable, catwalk-only designs. Although the term “streetwear” has been much chewed over recently, Smith’s more elastic definition of the term (bringing urban culture to the catwalk) has been incredibly influential. “He mixed looks from workwear, the military, African and Indian prints,” says fashion historian Darnell-Jamal Lisby. “He was enamoured with denim and the idea of the romanticised cowboy, often incorporating tweeds, denim or corduroy into his collection. He loved jumpsuits and the utilitarian aspects of the silhouette.”
His clothes were meant for everybody. He said: “Fashion is a people thing and designers should remember that. Models pose in clothes. People live in them.” Though he was inspired by New York City, he wanted people everywhere to appreciate the culture and inspiration of the city. “Being black has a lot to do with my being a good designer,” he said. “Most of these designers who have to run to Paris for colour and fabric combinations should go to church on Sunday in Harlem. It’s all right there.” His friend, former neighbour and fashion editor Kim Hastreiter says this philosophy went deep: “He loved street culture and made clothes for people to wear on the street.”
Smith was born in Philadelphia in 1948 and went to Parsons School of Design on a scholarship in 1965 after getting an internship with the couturier Arnold Scaasi. His grandmother worked as a housekeeper for one of Scaasi’s clients. Williwear hit its stride in the early 80s (it was founded in 1976 with Smith’s friend Laurie Mallet), when the label incorporated some elements of hip hop culture into its aesthetic, most notably his 1983 autumn-winter collection called Street Couture, which featured music and dance performances. That year Smith became the youngest-ever winner of the American Fashion Critics’ Award for Women’s Fashion.
Smith was part of a wave of young black American designers who made their names in the 70s. There was Patrick Kelly, who found fame in France with his controversial designs, and celebrity favourite Stephen Burrows. There was also Jax Jaxon (“the first black designer to be at the helm of a couture house: Jean-Louis Scherrer from 1969-1970,” says Lisby), and Smith’s best friend Alvin Bell.
“I think the success of Smith and Kelly set them apart from their peers and predecessors,” says Lisby. “Smith owned the most lucrative business out of them.” By 1986, Williwear was grossing sales of more than $25 million a year in more than 500 stores.
“He was a huge hero to African American women,” says Hastreiter. “They worshipped Willi and felt such enormous pride in his success. He was a black man who could change our society’s inherent racist perception of black men in general,” she says. “[For black women he became] their dream husband, dream boss, dream best friend, dream leader, their dream son, dream teacher. He represented so many dreams, their dreams for the future of their African American community. A lot was projected on to Smith. It must have been a lot of pressure.”
She says that what really drove him wasn’t ambition but a sense of giving back to his community. “What would make him proud was not when a movie star wore his clothes. He would burst with pride when he’d see black kids on the streets running around in his stuff or those black ladies at the bank wearing it to work.” The oft-repeated quote from him: “I don’t design clothes for the queen, but the people who wave at her as she goes by,” emphasised his universal outlook.
Smith also broke boundaries when it came to collaborating with artists and creatives (something commonplace among today’s designers such as Dior’s Kim Jones or Rick Owens). He kept close ties to artists he met studying at Parsons, such as Christo and also worked with the likes of Nam June Paik, Bill T Jones and Dan Friedman. He collaborated with Keith Haring twice, including on a Williwear T-shirt. Smith also contributed to Spike Lee’s 1988 musical comedy-drama School Daze. “[Costume designer] Ruth E Carter commissioned him to make the gowns for the homecoming court,” says Cunningham Cameron.
During this period of professional success, Smith contracted Aids. “When he wasn’t well he would disappear,” says Hastreiter. “Like many other successful people with Aids, Willi didn’t talk about it. And hid a lot. Although I could tell he was sick for a while. You just knew in those days when someone had that very haunted look.” She recalls that the last time she saw him alive: “I saw him in the building elevator and he’d gotten very very thin.”
Smith eventually died of pneumonia, complicated by the parasitic disease shigella, which he picked up during a work trip to buy fabric in India. He was 39 years old. Though at the time of his death, Williwear was making millions and the New York Daily News called him “the most successful black designer in fashion history”, he has now largely been forgotten. What would have happened if he had lived?
Cunningham Cameron says that there has been much speculation among his friends and family. “We’ve been told that he wanted to move to India permanently, a place he visited constantly,” she says. “He might have gone to Hollywood to produce films full-time after making a short film called Expedition.” Of course we will never know but his legacy: streetwear lives on in menswear season after season.
The book Willi Smith: Street Couture by Alexandra Cunningham Cameron (Rizzoli) is out now. An exhibition of Smith’s work is at the Cooper Hewitt museum, New York, until October. Please check the museum’s website to see how lockdown has affected opening times