Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

1984

  • Work on this object began.

2019

2020

2021

  • You found it!

Menswear Illustration

This is a Menswear illustration. It was designed by Willi Smith and made for WilliWear Ltd..

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Bill Bonnell as part of Willi Smith: Street Couture.

Its medium is pen and ink, graphite on paper. It is a part of the department.


"Willi and I came up in fashion together. We were like brothers. When we were young, Willi would show me photographs of a shirt, pants, blazer, and I would ask, ‘Why would you want to make that stuff?’ He would respond, ‘Alvin, I want to dress people in the streets.’ Willi created pedestrian clothes—clothes for the average person. He always told me that he strove to be the ‘designer of the people.’"

—Alvin Bell, designer

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318802381/ |title=Menswear Illustration |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=23 April 2021 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>