Naomi sims beauty products

Gosta Peterson, a photographer for The Times, agreed to photograph her for the cover of its August fashion supplement, then called Fashions of The Times. The agencies were still not interested, so Ms. Sims, showing a dash of enterprise that would later define her career, told Wilhelmina Cooper, a former model who was starting her own agency, that she would send out copies of the magazine to advertising agencies with Ms. Cooper could have a commission if anyone called back. Within a year, Ms.

But Ms. After five years, she gave up modeling and started a wig-making business with styles designed for black women. It eventually expanded into a multimillion-dollar beauty empire and at least five books on modeling and beauty.

Sims told The Times in Her father was a porter. The family moved to Pittsburgh, where her mother became ill and Ms. Sims was one of the first African-Americans to become a major name in modeling, making history as the first black model to grace the cover of Ladies Home Journal in , and Life magazine in Born in Oxford, Miss. According to her Web site, she was unable to fund her studies and started posing for fashion illustrators to support herself, a path that eventually led her to the Wilhemina modeling agency.

She remembered how Sims would always mix her own cosmetic foundations to get the right mix for her complexion. Stephen Burrows often worked with Sims. She was Told by the major modeling agencies that her skin was too dark, Sims did not let that stop her from chasing after her dreams.

Before Sims, no dark-skinned model had ever received so much exposure, praise, and professional prestige. Here, Sims graces the August cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. Model Naomi Sims wears a long belted dress by Halston in She broke down all the social barriers. It was a huge break, but when Sims returned to the modeling agencies, she found that nothing had changed; they still insisted there was no work for Black models.

Finally, she approached former top model Wilhelmina Cooper, who was just starting her own agency. If anyone was interested, Cooper had just earned a modeling commission; if not, she had wasted no time or energy on the project.

After that brief period of discouragement, Sims saw her modeling career take off at blinding speed. Later that year, she appeared on the cover of Life magazine, which ran an article about new Black models.

In and , she was voted top model of the year by International Mannequins. Just two years after beginning her modeling career, Sims had appeared in virtually every fashion magazine in the world.

The same year, Sims decided to give up modeling, though she was just 24 and potentially had a long career in front of her. One easy solution would be to wear a wig, but Sims was dissatisfied with the wigs available at the time, which had smooth, straight fibers that looked nothing like Black hair.

So she decided to start experimenting in her kitchen. The result was a curlier, coarser fiber—and a new business idea. After approaching several wig manufacturers, she finally inked a deal with Metropa Company, a small import-export firm that sold a line of wigs for Black women.

The company agreed to put up some money, and make its research laboratories available to Sims.