Naomi Sims - First African Model
She became one of the first successful black models while still in her teens, and achieved worldwide recognition from the late 1960s into the early 1970s, appearing on the covers of prestigious fashion and popular magazines. The New York Times wrote that "appearance as the first black model on the cover of Ladies' Home Journal in November 1968 was a consummate moment of the Black is Beautiful movement"[1][6]. She also appeared on the cover of the October 17, 1969 issue of Life magazine.[7]
Sims decided to go into the beauty business for herself after modelling. In 1973, she retired from modeling to start her own business which created a successful wig collection fashioned after the texture of straightened black hair. It eventually expanded "into a multimillion-dollar beauty empire and at least five books on modeling and beauty."[1]
She authored several books on modeling, health, and beauty, including All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman, How to Be a Top Model and All About Success for the Black Woman, as well as an advice column for teenage girls in Right On! magazine.
Fernmitchell states on their website, "Naomi Sims, one of the top African-American businesswomen in the United States, began her career as the first black supermodel. According to Essence magazine, 'Never had a model so dark-skinned received so much exposure, praise, and professional prestige.'" The site continues saying,
Struggled to Begin Modeling Career
At 5'10", with dark skin, Sims had not been considered particularly attractive as a teenager. "Black wasn't beautiful then," she said in Black Enterprise. "The darker your skin, the less good-looking you were considered; and I was too tall, and too skinny." In the wake of the civil rights movement and the Black Power movement, however, the idea that only light-skinned women were attractive was being called into question.
Sims began college after winning a scholarship to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, while also taking night classes in psychology at New York University. Her early attempts to get modeling work through established agencies were frustrated by racial prejudice, with some agencies telling her that her skin was too dark. Her first career breakthrough came after she decided to sidestep the agencies and go directly to fashion photographers and Gosta Peterson, a photographer for The New York Times, agreed to photograph her for the cover of the paper's August 1967 fashion supplement[4].
Despite this breakthrough, Sims still found it difficult to get work, so she approached Wilhelmina Cooper, a former model who was starting her own agency, saying that she would send out copies of theTimes supplement to advertising agencies, attaching Cooper's telephone number, and that Cooper's agency would get a commission if Naomi received any work. Within a year Sims was earning US$1000 a week. The key breakthrough came when she was selected for a national television campaign for AT&T, wearing clothes by designer Bill Blass. In 1968 Sims told Ladies' Home Journal:
- "It helped me more than anything else because it showed my face. After it was aired, people wanted to find out about me and use me."[5]
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