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life | willi smith
TEXT BY ELLEN LUPTON
Willi Smith (1948–1987) designed drapey, sporty, billowy, relaxed clothes intended for everyone, not just elite members of society. He grew up in Philadelphia with his grandmother, who raised him after his parents divorced and labored as a house- keeper to send her gifted grandson to col- lege. Parsons School of Design dismissed Smith in 1967 for having a relationship with a male student. Smith’s brilliant talent took flight within New York City’s downtown art scene, where he collaborated with artists while designing sportswear for a main- stream fashion company.
Smith founded WilliWear Ltd. with Laurie Mallet in 1976. WilliWear clothing was practical, experimental, and affordable. Anyone could walk into a department store and buy his jackets, shirts, skirts, or pants, whose loose lines fit varied body types.
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 Smith also released his designs as sewing patterns for Butterick and McCall’s. People could buy these paper patterns for a few dollars and make their own WilliWear. Recalling the Philadelphia neighborhood of his childhood, where women made clothes for themselves and their families, Smith believed that home sewing enabled people to truly make his clothing their own.
Smith collaborated with artists Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer to emblazon T-shirts with provocative slogans. He com- missioned graphic designer Bill Bonnell to create experimental visual branding, and he published WilliWear News, a big news- print poster that folded down into a zine.
Smith suddenly became ill in 1987 and died of AIDS at age thirty-nine. The world lost a generous and gifted visionary, who created art for daily use.
The more commercial I become, the more creative I can be because I am reaching more people.
  SOURCES Alexandra Cameron Cunningham, Willi Smith: Street Couture (New York: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Rizzoli, 2020). In our fantasy portrait, Willi Smith relaxes on furniture designed by his friend Dan Friedman (1945–1995), a graphic designer and furniture
designer who was part of the downtown art scene where Smith thrived. Smith’s apartment contained his rich personal collection of art, artifacts, and photography, including several furniture pieces by Friedman, who also designed WilliWear’s Paris showroom.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JENNIFER TOBIAS























































































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