Naomi Sims

At 61 years old, Naomi Sims has this physical status:

Naomi Ruth Sims (March 30, 1948 – August 1, 2009) was an American model, businesswoman, and author. She was the first African-American model to appear on the front cover of Ladies' Home Journal in November 1968 and is widely credited as the first African-American supermodel.

Early life

Sims was born in Oxford, Mississippi, and was the youngest of three children born to John and Elizabeth Sims. According to Sims' mother, her father (whom she never knew) worked as a porter, but she and her parents divorced shortly after she was born. At the age of 13, she was teased for her height of 5'10. Elizabeth Sims and her three children migrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Naomi Sims' mother was forced to place her child in foster care. She attended Westinghouse High School. She was ostracized by many of her peers due to her height. Sims credited her upbringing her through adolescence as a Catholic.

Personal life

She married art dealer Michael Findlay in August 1973. In 1973, Findlay and Sims caused a riot because Findlay was white and interracial marriage was still considered taboo. In the Vogue issue of February 1, 1970, Findlay and Sims were both profiled separately before meeting and marrying. Bob, Bob, was their one son. In 1991, the couple's marriage ended in divorce.

Naomi was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

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Career

Sims began training at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City after winning a scholarship to the Fashion Institute of Technology, while still taking night classes in psychology at New York University. Her attempts to gain modeling work through established companies were stymied by racial stereotypes, with some departments advising her that her skin was too dark. Gösta Peterson, a photographer for The New York Times, wanted to photograph her for the front page of the paper's August 1967 fashion supplement, marking her first career breakthrough.

Sims found it impossible to get work after this breakthrough, so she approached Wilhelmina Cooper, a former model who was starting her own company, and told Cooper that if Naomi received no work, Cooper's office would get a commission if Naomi were to be hired. Sims was making $1,000 a week for the first year. When she was chosen for a national television commercial campaign for AT&T, designer Bill Blass styled her clothes.

In 1968 Sims told Ladies' Home Journal,

Sims rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s as one of the first female black models to achieve international prominence, appearing on the front pages of prestigious fashion and popular magazines. The New York Times wrote that (her) "appearance as the first black model on the front page of Ladies' Home Journal in November 1968 was a "most consummate moment of the Black is beautiful movement" at the time. She appeared on the front page of Life magazine's October 17, 1969 issue. On the front page of the magazine, she was the first African-American model. The images from the 1967 New York Times fashion magazine cover and the 1969 Life magazine cover were on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in an exhibit titled The Model as Muse.

Hollywood became involved in Sims as a young actress and offered her the lead role in the film Cleopatra Jones in 1972, but Sims was horrified by the film's racial portrayal of blacks. Sims ultimately decided to enter the beauty industry for herself. Sims departed from modeling in 1973 to start her own business, which resulted in the appearance of straightened black hair. Its "into a multimillion-dollar beauty empire and at least five books on modeling and beauty" have since been published.

Sims authored several books on modeling, health, and beauty, including All About Black Women, How to Be a Top Model, and All About Being a Model, as well as an advice column for teenage girls in Right On! The magazine was published.

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