Willi Smith,WilliWear Map Print Skirt,Summer 1986 Collection

摘要

I had been researching American designer Willi Smith for a year before finding this skirt late one night during a deep-dive on Instagram. It appeared on the feed of a San Francisco-based vintage dealer, a major discovery buried amidst crop tops and mom jeans. When Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum began organizing the Willi Smith: Street Couture exhibition in 2018, we were faced with a fundamental problem: we couldn't find examples of Smith's designs. The curatorial team desperately sought WilliWear made between 1976 and 1987-the period during which Smith led his company before succumbing to HIV/AIDS at age 39-calling friends, family, collaborators and museums.