Bill Smith (born 1933) is an American

fashion Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...

and jewelry designer who was the first black recipient of a

Coty Award The Coty American Fashion Critics' Awards (awarded 1943–1984) were created in 1942 by the cosmetics and perfume company Coty to promote and celebrate American fashion, and encourage design during the Second World War. In 1985, the Coty Awards we ...

for his designs. He has designed for a number of companies, including costume jewelry for Coro and Richelieu, leather goods for Mark Cross, and

furs A fur is a soft, thick growth of hair that covers the skin of almost all mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an ...

for Ben Kahn, along with designing jewelry for Cartier.

Biography

Born in 1933 in

Madison, Indiana Madison is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Indiana, United States, along the Ohio River. As of the 2010 United States Census its population was 11,967. Over 55,000 people live within of downtown Madison. Madison is the large ...

, in his early childhood Bill Smith was encouraged to develop and make the most of his talents. He went to

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

to study art from 1951 to 1952 and whilst there, also explored dance. In 1954 he headed to New York to study dance with

Alwin Nikolais Alwin Nikolais (November 25, 1910 – May 8, 1993) was an American choreographer, dancer, composer, musician, and teacher. He created the Nikolais Dance Theatre, and was known for his self-designed innovative costume, lighting, and production des ...

, but decided to focus on jewelry design and in 1958 set up a small business in

Murray Hill, Manhattan Murray Hill is a neighborhood on the East Side (Manhattan), east side of Manhattan in New York City. Murray Hill is generally bordered to the east by the East River or Kips Bay, Manhattan, Kips Bay and to the west by Midtown Manhattan, though the ...

. Whilst studying dance, he worked part-time

soldering Soldering (; ) is a process of joining two metal surfaces together using a filler metal called solder. The soldering process involves heating the surfaces to be joined and melting the solder, which is then allowed to cool and solidify, creatin ...

and

casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or ...

for a jewelry company, which gave him technical and artisan knowledge to support his designing. In June 1968, Bill Smith was made vice-president of Richelieu, at that time the second largest jewelry firm in America, after only two months with the company as their head designer. Later that year in October, he was commissioned to exclusively create all the jewelry for the Broadway production of ''

Coco Coco or variants may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Coco'' (2009 film), a French comedy film * ''Coco'' (2017 film), an American animated fantasy film * '' Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle'' (), a 2020 Japanese anime film ...

'', a stage musical about the life of

Coco Chanel Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel ( , ; 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and Businessperson, businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with populari ...

starring

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose Katharine Hepburn on screen and stage, career as a Golden Age of Hollywood, Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong ...

. Bill Smith was one of six jewelry designers honoured with a special Coty Award in 1970 alongside Daniel Stoenescu and Steven Brody of Cadoro, Alexis Kirk,

Marty Ruza Marty Ruza of "Ruza Creations"/"Elegant Belts" was an American designer of leather fashion accessories who won a Coty Award for jewelry design in 1970. He was described by the fashion journalist Eleanor Lambert as the "leader of the fringed leathe ...

and Cliff Nicholson. His designs draw inspiration from his African heritage and have been described as sparse and sculptural. At the time of the Coty Award win his designs incorporated tassels, leather, and cord alongside metal and stone, and he had experience with precious and semi-precious stones and metals. Alongside more traditional jewelry, he offered chignon covers and belts, including one in fringed suede fastened with an eight-inch gilded

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are ...

, and a range of architectural ethnic-style crosses, titled "Peacemakers", hanging from silk cords. In 1972, he posed with Naomi Sims for a fashion spread on black designers and their muses for the April 1972 issue of ''The Look'' magazine, which showcased one of his 18-carat gold cuffs for Cartier, modelled by Sims. Sims had introduced him to Kenton Corp, who set up ''Bill Smith Design Studios, Inc.'', with Smith as the president, from where he was creating jewelry for Cartier and leather accessories for Mark Cross. The company had disestablished by 1981, when Smith was working as a consultant on accessory design for Omega Inc. and the

Hattie Carnegie Hattie Carnegie (March 15, 1886 – February 22, 1956) was a fashion entrepreneur based in New York City from the 1920s to the 1950s. She was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, as Henrietta Kanengeiser. By her early 20s, she had taken the surn ...

company which made accessories to accompany Anne Klein's clothing collections. He won an award for excellence in jewelry design in 1984 at the 6th Annual Black Designers Tribute. His life and designs are chronicled in the book Visionary Designs by Bill Smith, tj. https://outskirtspress.com/salesSheet/isbn/9781977272423 written by JoAnne M Spiller. An obituary posted only in the August 28, 1991 issue of Women's Wear Daily states that Bill died at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City on August 22, 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Bill 1936 births 1991 deaths 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people American jewelry designers African-American fashion designers American fashion designers People from Madison, Indiana Indiana University Bloomington alumni