Naomi Sims was a teenager from Oxford, Miss., when she broke fashion industry color barriers on New York runways in 1967. One of the world's first black supermodels, she died Saturday at the age of 61 after a battle with breast cancer.
Sims became an icon of the "Black is Beautiful" movement after she appeared on the cover of Ladies' Home Journal in 1968. She later posed for the covers of Time, Cosmopolitan, McCall's, Life and many other magazines.
But Sims was a supermoel when that term really meant something special, writes Robin Givhan, a culture critic at The Washington Post.
"Sims was also a successful businesswoman with a line of wigs aimed at African-American women," writes Givhan. "She was a model-turned-entrepreneur long before Tyra Banks ever uttered the word 'fierce,' long before Banks was even born.
"Those twin cover achievements are far more important and lasting than being able to strut down a runway in 4-inch heels without toppling over or being a designer’s muse. The title 'supermodel' is too limited, too modest for what Sims really managed to do. She initiated a dialogue on how our culture defines beauty—a dialogue that continues to this day. She proved that a pretty face does not mean an empty head—a fact that continues to roil our assumptions. And ultimately, she let the world know that a black face—a black woman—is someone to be reckoned with."
Thanks, Robin, for the tribute — and putting Naomi's achievements into perspective.
