Naomi Sims
Naomi Sims was born March 30, 1948 in Oxford, Mississippi. She was the youngest of three girls. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth. Her family moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she graduated from Westinghouse High School. In 1966, with a small scholarship, she began attending the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
With the encouragement of friends and wanting to make money to support herself, Sims turned to modeling. She was repeatedly turned down and the reason given, her beautiful chocolate skin was too dark. Not discouraged and still determined, Sims, acting as her own agent, began approaching photographers.
One of the photographers, was Gosta Peterson, who worked for the Times. He agreed to photograph her and used her for the cover of the August 1967 fashion supplement called Fashions of the Times.
Even though she had gained that small measure of success, Sims was still unable to gain any work with modeling agencies. She decided to approach Wilhelmina Cooper, a former model starting her own agency, with a proposal. Sims proposed a deal that she would send out copies of the supplement she was featured on with Cooper’s business cards attached. Ms. Cooper could keep the commission if anyone called back. The calls came.
Within a year, Ms. Sims was earning $1000 a week and had been hired for a national television campaign for AT&T. The following year Ms. Sims was on the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal. It was the first time a black model had been featured so prominently on a mainstream magazine. Suddenly, Naomi Sims was in high demand.
August 1973
After only five years, she gave up modeling. In 1973, Sims went into business designing and manufacturing wigs. In 1986, she established a beauty product company that featured cosmetics for black women.
Naomi Sims also wrote four books and had an advice column in Right On magazine.
She succumbed to cancer on August 3, 2009
Naomi Sims
We celebrate the life of Ms. Naomi Sims for following her dreams and not allowing obstacles or the negative thoughts of others to keep her from achieving them. She proved what we know, that yes, Black is beautiful and also intelligent. She built a multi-million dollar empire and she did all these things . . . in her heels.
