HELEN WILLIAMS WAS THE FIRST female African American fashion model to break into the mainstream. Bu

There were others before her but she was the firts to cross iver into mainstream modeling. Born in East Riverton New Jersey in 1937, she was obsessed with clothes from an early age, and began sewing her own garments at the age of seven.She studied dance and art as a teenager and landed her first job.

TOO BLACK FOR FASHION?????

Williams worked exclusively for African American magazines such as Ebony and Jet at first because of her shapely eyebrows and long neck. Things weer this way because of aparthied. within the African American modelling scene itself, the girls were required to be light-skinned, just like the African American chorus girls of the 1920s. “I was too dark to be accepted,” Williams recalled.

A while after,she continued to try to get work by looking for jobs in places other than America. In France there was a differnt view of black beauty. They saw her as beautiful and unique and gave her jobs immidetly. From there Helen became the first mainstream African American model.