highcaliberdivisions.com - Willi Smith: Innovate

During his twenty-year career Willi Smith (1948–1987) united fashion and American culture, marrying affordable, adaptable basics with avant-garde performance, film, art, and design. Smith hoped to solve what he called “the problem of getting dressed,” or the lack of control fashion afforded the everyday person, by using clothing as a tool for the liberation of stereotypes around race, class, sex, and gender, and bringing art into the mainstream.

“You used to see WilliWear everywhere. It was a brand that you would see everyone wearing on the street. That’s why editors started referring to it as streetwear.”3

Feb 29, 1948 -April 17, 1987

Willi Smith sadly lost his battle to AIDS in 1987, he leaves behind the legacy of making his life's work activism through art, carving a lane that was vastly original, bold, yet affordable and assessable.

Willi Smith broke the mold of what fashion was seen to be and completely reimagined the term and style. He will be forever missed and honored.

May He Rest Well.

Sources

all quotes and picture come directly from the sources below. To see the full archive along with several subsections click the following links!

https://willismitharchive.cargo.site/WilliWear-to-Streetwear

https://willismitharchive.cargo.site/To-Be-American

https://willismitharchive.cargo.site/Attitudes

Sources

Instagram