First African American Female SUPERMODEL: Naomi Sims

First Photo Shoot: Cover of "The New York Times Magazine"

For all those who don’t know Naomi Sims, she is the FIRST African American female supermodel, who traded in her runway Heels for some Business pumps when she decided to make that move from Model to Business Women. She has many accomplishments but as most people who make it big they had to struggle to get there. Born March 30, 1949 in Oxford Mississippi, she attended Westinghouse High School. In 1966 after graduation, she moved to New York to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) where she studied merchandising and textile design. While at FIT she also attended New York University (NYU), where she studied psychology. The classes that she took at Fit and NYU would later help her with her later Business ventures. While is school she began pursuing modeling to make some money of her own.

Inside the Magazine

Sims struggled making her way to become a model because she was so tall, skinny and dark, and during the wake of the civil right movement and the Black Power movement the idea that only light-skinned women were attractive was being questioned so you know it was even harder for darker women. She was turned down by many agencies so keeping her goals set in high she did something which was considered quite a risk. Naomi contacted a Fashion Photographer directly and got him to agree to meet with her and the results of that meeting landed her on the Cover of Times Magazine. Sims continued with her risk taking by approaching Super-Model Wilhelmina Cooper with an idea to not only expose herself as a model but to also make a name for Cooper’s, then, up and coming agency! A few days later she was signed to the agency and within a week she was hired for a national television commercial for AT&T. Later that year, she appeared on the cover of Life magazine, which ran an article about new black models. In 1969 and 1970, she was voted top model of the year by International Mannequins. Just two years after beginning her modeling career, Sims had appeared in virtually every fashion magazine in the world.

Naomi Sims on the Runway

In 1973 at the young age of 24 Sims decided to give up her modeling career to chase on her number one goal in life. "I started to model to supplement my income to go to college....But the idea of starting my own business had always appealed to me, and I was fortunate that my first career led to my second." ~As quoted saying in African American Business Leaders. Way before there was Beyonce, Tyra and Wendy Williams there was Naomi Sims who had her own Wig business which was a venture that she thought of while doing runway shows. She had issues with the wigs they gave her because they didn’t match the texture of an African American Women so through trial and error in her kitchen she created a way to transform the wigs to something more relevant to her own hair. After approaching several wig manufacturers, she finally inked a deal with Metropa Company where she created “Presselle”, the first of many Naomi Sims collection to go into production. Within the first year her Wig collection grossed 5 Million dollars although store buyers were skeptical about the need for Sims's product, not understanding the difference between black hair and Caucasian hair. By 1979, when the Naomi Sims Collection was spun off into a separate division, it was generating the majority of Metropa's sales. In the early 1980s, Sims gradually expanded her business interests to include perfume, skin care products, and cosmetics for black women. Her signature fragrance, Naomi, was launched in 1981. Four years later, she founded her own company, Naomi Sims Beauty Products Ltd.

August 1973 Cover

Naomi Sims is a well Accomplished African American Women who used her beauty to make herself an Entrepreneur as well as a top selling author. She published many “Black Womens” books as well as “How to be a Top Model” in 1979, over 20 years before Tyra Banks made her television show a success. Naomi Sims paved the way for so many African American Models and Business women to be the success they are today. Naomi Sims passed away August 1, 2009 at the age of 61 due to her struggle with cancer. Her Legacy will forever live on and I’m sure she will have a major representation in this upcoming fall fashion season!

Sims(far right) at Oprah's Legends Ball