http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20068585,00.html
People couldn't take their eyes off her," recalls designer Halston of the svelte black model, with her exotic proportions, 5'10" height, perfect oval face and lizard grace. Adds model agency head Wilhelmina Cooper: "She could make any garment—even a sackcloth—look like sensational haute couture."
The times were right for Naomi Sims. When she made her debut as an 18-year-old in 1967, it was the peak of the civil rights movement. The chant of "black is beautiful" was in the air, and Naomi became the first woman of her race to arrive in the world of high fashion. "She was the great ambassador for all black people," Halston recalls. "She broke down all the social barriers."
Yet when she was only 24, Naomi quit to go into business for herself, despite fees of up to $1,000 a day. "Modeling was never my ultimate goal," she explains. Her new career was the manufacture of wigs for black women, who account for 40 percent of the market. A risky, highly competitive profession? Yes, but last year the Naomi Sims Collection grossed $5 million, making her one of the nation's top black businesswomen.
At 28, Naomi enjoys all the perks of a millionaire female executive—chauffeured limousine, Tiffany jewelry, designer clothes, a Manhattan co-op, a Connecticut summer home with houseboy and cook. She also has an Ecuadorian nanny to look after 2½-year-old John Phillip, nicknamed "Pip," the product of her four-year marriage to British-born art dealer Michael Findlay, 32.
It is a life that she could hardly have dreamed of while growing up in Pittsburgh. She recalls her childhood as lonely, partly because she was separated for nine years from her older sisters, Betty (now a Ford model) and Doris (a schoolteacher). "I was forced to be self-reliant," she says. Naomi has only vague memories of her father in the early years. Her mother was the strong influence, inculcating the family with the belief, "Nothing is impossible." But when Naomi was 8, her mother suffered a nervous breakdown. "I moved around a lot," Naomi recalls, eventually settling with loving foster parents who raised her. Adding to the usual adolescent agonies was her spindly height which, she confesses, "gave me a complex."
After high school graduation, Naomi discovered her height was her greatest asset. When money for classes at New York's famed Fashion Institute ran out, a counselor suggested modeling. Naomi began calling photographers, and in an incredible stroke of luck on her first professional job, she made the cover of the New York Times fall fashion section in 1967. Shortly thereafter Wilhelmina signed Naomi because "when that lady walked through a door, nobody else existed"—although until that time "there was no business for black models, period!" Photographers were so unaccustomed to dark skin that Naomi's portfolio shots, Wilhelmina recalls, often turned out "all teeth and the whites of her eyes." The next year Naomi found herself on the cover of Ladies' Home Journal. In October 1969, when LIFE put her on the cover, she was billed simply as "Top fashion model—Naomi Sims."
For all the glamor, Naomi became increasingly restless over the "narcissism" of her trade. "The toughest thing about modeling," she says, "is being involved with yourself 24 hours a day." She was reluctant to talk about what she did for a living. "People think all models are stupid," she notes angrily. Naomi wasn't. Aware that she could not wear wigs because "I couldn't find any that matched my eyes, nose and coloring," she began researching synthetic hair. "I never traveled without scissors," she says. "Wherever I went—streets, theater—I'd ask for hair samples." With the help of chemists from Metropa, an existing wig manufacturer, she developed a coarse hair fiber resembling the straightened hair of black women, and decided to experiment with her first collection. "I trusted my judgment," she says. "I had an excellent product, and I wouldn't give up."
Again timing was on Naomi's side. In 1973 the vogue for the Afro was waning and there was a new interest in wigs. On the basis of her reputation as a model, she persuaded 80 stores to show her line. White store managers were reluctant, even in neighborhoods with a large black clientele. But sales have mushroomed through word of mouth. Also helping to promote her name is her 1976 book, All About Health & Beauty for the Black Woman (Doubleday), which has gone into six printings. Today the Naomi Sims Collection is carried in 2,000 stores in the U.S., Africa and the West Indies, and 1977 sales are expected to top $6 million.
In retrospect, 1973 was truly a year of decision for Naomi: she also met her future husband, a young Scotsman launching himself as an art dealer. "I courted her in a rather traditional way," Findlay recalls, "which means I laid siege to her doorstep and sent lots of flowers." He also proposed on their first date, a move he now admits "greatly confused Naomi and set our relationship back six months."
Today their mutual interest in art—Findlay owns a gallery in Manhattan, she collects the work of young American painters—remains strong. So does their marriage. Naomi believes its success rests on being co-equals. "If a woman is financially independent, she's more her own person," she explains. "She has emotional freedom." Does she miss being a cover girl? "No," Naomi replies firmly. "What I'm doing is far more fulfilling. I'm more in control of my life."
Posted by Shuyang Peng
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