Naomi Sims (1948-2009) was a black American supermodel from the 1960s, one of the first. Before there was Naomi Campbell, there was Naomi Sims. In November 1968 she became the first black woman on the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal, the first to appear on a mainstream women’s magazine in America. She later went into business selling her own line of wigs and make-up designed for black women and wrote books about beauty and modelling. She died yesterday of cancer at age 61.
She was born in Mississippi but her family later moved up north to Pittsburgh, where she lived in a largely poor white neighbourhood. By 13 she was already 5 foot 10 (1.78 m) . She was picked on and became a loner. Growing up in an age before Twiggy and “Black is beautiful”, she was too tall, too thin and too dark to be considered beautiful. But her upbringing and her Catholic faith taught her to always walk with pride and dignity.
In 1966 she went to New York to live with her sister and study at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her scholarship money was not enough, so she turned to modelling to put herself through school.
The model agencies all said no because she was black. So she called fashion photographers herself. One of them, Gosta Peterson, agreed to meet her. His wife, it turned out, was the head of the fashion pages of the New York Times. In August 1967 she appeared in the Times.
After that success she went back to the model agencies but they still said no! So she talked one of them into letting her use their name and sent her layout in the Times to 100 advertising agencies. To the model agency’s utter amazement the calls started coming in! By November 1968 she was on the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal.
Her dark skin worked to her advantage: This was just when “Black is beautiful” was becoming a catchphrase and black tokenism was cutting edge stuff.
Within two years she was in all the fashion magazines. She made anything she wore look great and had her own way of walking down the runway that was beautiful to watch. She modelled for Halston, AT&T, Virginia Slims, Life magazine and others.
In 1972 Hollywood wanted her to star in “Cleopatra Jones”, a blaxpoitation film. When she read the script she said no: she was shocked at how racist it was.
In 1973 she made the cover of Cosmopolitan and then quit modelling.
Four years before she had said, “There is nothing sadder than an old, broke model.” So she went into business making wigs. She found out how to make hair that looked like straightened black women’s hair and then designed wigs in all the latest styles. In the 1980s she branched out into perfume, skin-care and make-up. By the 2000s, however, large white companies started to push her out.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s she wrote five books. One of them,”All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman” (1976), is still in print.
See also:
- Ellen Holly – became the first regular black character on a soap opera: “One Life to Live”, July 1968
- black fashion models
- Donyale Luna – first black woman on British Vogue (1966)
- Naomi Campbell – first black woman on French Vogue (1988)
- Liris Crosse
- Toccara Jones
- Twiggy
Rest in peace, Naomi Sims. May we remember her always.
La Reyna
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Black is beautiful but white is right! lol
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correction. white is trite.
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Naomi Simms is an excellent example of a beautiful, intelligent, successful BW whose life DEFIED the LIES, MYTHS, and STEREOTYPES promoted by the media and American society.
Black is beautiful no matter what ANY STUPID, MORONIC, ANTI-BW RACIST/HATERS may say.
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Naomi Simms was such an inspiration and a beautiful woman. She probably did not realize the number of women she helped that had self-esteem issues concerning being a beaufiful dark brown black woman.
To Wayne, what are you mad at? Your anger towards black women is pretty pathetic and must keep you up late at night. Maybe a black woman has rejected your attempts or you know they do not find your attitude and physical characteristics very attractive. From your attitude, white women may feel the same way.
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Not mad, just having at laugh!
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obviously wayne must be mad. that’s why he’s here to trash on black women. i think it’s wonderful that she didn’t give up and let people get to her because the color of her skin and did a lot for brown skin models. if no one has anything nice to say, especially wayne, then leave.
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lil’vina
There are a couple of black guys at my work and we always ripping each other’s race off but having a good laugh in the process! Obviously you American folks take it a bit more seriously, lighten up. There are more serious issues in the world then colour of skin!
Glenda
Is that comment supposed to hurt me. If so, you better look for another angle dearie!
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Leave it to a STUPID, MORONIC, ANTI-BW RACIST/HATER to think a post honoring the passing of an amazing BW as an appropriate place to make comments that MOCK/TRASH BW.
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hey Wayne,
Why don’t you go back to FHM and mess with the blondies because you don’t have any respect for
the dead.
La Reyna
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Wayne:
The comment of yours I just deleted and even some of those above are completely inappropriate, like La Reyna says. If you persist on picking on commenters then you will be marked as spam.
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What a great story! I am saddened that I never heard of her, though I don’t follow modeling much. It’s too bad that her life was cut so short. This is the sort of story that I wish web journalists would write and post more frequently.
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