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Community Archive



The Willi Smith Digital Community Archive invites friends, collaborators and admirers of American designer Willi Smith to share in writing his history. This site collects and publishes personal recollections, new scholarship, video, and digital ephemera that contributes to a greater understanding of Smith’s life, work, and times.


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Janette Beckman



In 1986, I was working with Kim Hastreiter taking photographs for her downtown New York magazine Paper. Kim asked me if I wanted to photograph Willi and some models wearing his clothes for WilliWear News. I was a huge fan of his clothes; I wore one of his oversized WilliWear coats every day. Willi was delightful; I photographed him with his dog Rufus for the cover of the magazine. The magazine was styled like the early Paper magazine issues, with a fold-out broadsheet and fun, graphic, black-and-white photos. It was my first fashion magazine shoot.

WilliWear News, Fall 1986 Collection, 1986 Photographed by Janette Beckman, 1986


This website was designed by and created in collaboration with Cargo, as part of its ongoing initiative to support arts, design and culture.

This website was designed by and created in collaboration with Cargo, as part of its ongoing initiative to support arts, design and culture.