Friday, August 7, 2009

Black Beauty Fridays: Naomi Sims "The first Black Super Model"



Naomi Sims, whose 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, and who went on to design successful collections of wigs and cosmetics for black women under her name, died Saturday in Newark. She was 61 and lived in Newark.
She died of cancer, said her son, Bob Findlay.
Ms. Sims is sometimes referred to as the first black supermodel.
“Naomi was the first,” the designer Halston told The New York Times in 1974. “She was the great ambassador for all black people. She broke down all the social barriers.”
Ms. Sims often said childhood insecurities and a painful upbringing — living in foster homes, towering over her classmates and living in a largely poor white neighborhood in Pittsburgh — had inspired her to strive to become “somebody really important” at a time when cultural perceptions of black Americans were being challenged by the civil rights movement and a renewed stress on racial pride

After five years, she gave up modeling and started a wig-making business with styles designed for black women. It eventually expanded into a multimillion-dollar beauty empire and at least five books on modeling and beauty.
“There is nothing sadder than an old, broke model, and there are many models who have nothing at the end of their career,” Ms. Sims told The Times in 1969.
In the 1980s, she expanded the Naomi Sims Collection to include a prestige fragrance, beauty salons and cosmetics, but by the end of the decade she had become less involved with its daily operations. Many images of Ms. Sims from that period are still used to promote the products that bear her name.
Ms. Sims often attributed her success to using her race as an advantage.
“It’s ‘in’ to use me,” she said early on, “and maybe some people do it when they don’t really like me. But even if they are prejudiced, they have to be tactful if they want a good picture.”
For More information please visit http://www.naomisims.com/

R.I.P Naomi Sims may you have a smooth transition over to the spiritual plane.

6 comments:

Joshua said...

I appreciate your site it's afrocentric it's US!!! It's black. Is your name really Civil? You may be the only woman in the world name Civil. If I am wrong let me know. Hope your having a good day. - Joshua

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Anonymous said...

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