Helen Williams
1937 — 2018 · Riverton-born American fashion model; the first Black American fashion model to appear in mainstream American national print advertising in the 1950s; principal pioneer of the principal Black-American mainstream-advertising fashion-model tradition
Helen Williams was born in Riverton, New Jersey, in the late 1930s (November 26, 1937 by the African American Registry; September 16, 1935 by other records), and raised in the segregated Black community of the Delaware River town. Drawn to beauty and craft from childhood, she was said to have begun sewing her own garments at the age of seven and to have studied dance, art, and drama before ever standing before a camera.
Discovered around the age of seventeen while working as a stylist in a New York photographer's studio, she was encouraged toward modeling by figures such as Lena Horne and Sammy Davis Jr. In her early years her work appeared chiefly in Ebony and Jet, the pages of Black America, for the mainstream houses would not book a dark-skinned woman. In 1960, weary of that closed door, she went to Paris, where couturiers including Christian Dior and Jean Dessès welcomed her to the runway.
Her success abroad shamed the industry at home. After columnists took up her cause, American advertisers at last opened their pages to her, and Helen Williams became the first Black American fashion model to appear in mainstream national print advertising — for brands such as Budweiser and Sears, in The New York Times, Life, and Redbook. She retired from modeling in 1970 and continued in fashion as a stylist, later honored with a Trailblazer Award in 2004.
Helen Williams died on July 26, 2023. She walked through a door that had been shut against her people and left it open for every face that followed. May her dignity be remembered.
References
- Helen Williams (model) - Wikipedia
- Helen Williams Jackson, Fashion Model born - African American Registry
- 28 Days of Black Fashion History: Helen Williams - 383 Design Studio NYC
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