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Object Timeline
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Shirt, ca. 1975
This is a Shirt. It was designed by Willi Smith and made for Ailey II, New York, New York, founded 1974.
This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Dianne McIntyre as part of Willi Smith: Street Couture.
Smith frequently used varying weights of gingham, which has histories of use in Japan, India, and Africa. A plain-woven textile, typically cotton, with a checked colored pattern, gingham was a major export of mills in Manchester, England, during the eighteenth century, and has been produced in the United States for centuries. For this performance, Smith renders a blouse and African American woman's headwrap in this affordable utilitarian fabric.
It is credited Courtesy of Dianne McIntyre.
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Willi Smith: Street Couture.
