28 Days Of Black History: Meet Helen Williams The First Black Fashion Model…

There were other models before her, but Helen Williams was the first black model to cross over into mainstream. 

Helen Williams

Helen Williams was born in East Riverton, New Jersey in 1937. With her love of fashion, she began sewing her own garments at the age of seven.  At 17, Williams worked as a stylist at a New York photography studio. She was spotted on separate occasions by Lena Horne and Sammy Davis Jr, who happened to be in the studio doing press shots. They encouraged her to pursue a career in fashion modeling.

Breaking into the fashion industry during the ’50s was hard for an up and coming black model. Williams worked exclusively for African American magazines such as Ebony and Jet. The early years were tough for non-white models,  especially in the African American modeling scene, girls were required to be light-skinned to get work.

“I was too dark to be accepted.”

In 1960 Williams moved to Paris to get work. The French had a different point of view on black beauty.  While there, she modeled for famous designers such as Christian Dior and Jean Dessès.

 “Over there I was ‘La Belle Americaine.”

After leaver Paris, Williams returned to America where things had not changed for dark-skinned African American models. While searching for a new agent in New York City, she was once told by an agency that they already have“one black model already, thanks”.

But Williams would not take no for an answer. “I was pushy and positive,” she said. Despite being rejected, she took her case to the press. Two white journalists Dorothy Kilgallen and Earl Wilson wrote about her cause,  bringing attention to the exclusion of black models within the modeling industry.

Soon Williams started getting work.
She booked jobs for brands such as Budweiser, Loom Togs, and Modess, which crossed over for the first time into the mainstream press, in titles such as The New York Times, Life, and Redbook.

Williams paved the way for dark-skinned African American models as she broke the tradition of only using white and light-skinned models in mainstream.

Source: Arogundade

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