Willi Smith & My Mother
NY magazine spread (Aug 28, 1978). Toukie Smith center in Willi Smith apparel, Eileen Carson hat, Maud Frizzon boots
Once upon a time, in a world far far away, before covid, I heard about the Willi Smith Exhibition and pre-ordered the catalog. Willi Smith was a groundbreaking fashion designer in the 1970s and 80s. He literally invented streetwear. He was a prodigious talent and he was black and gay.
My excitement though about the show was more personal. You see, my mother, Eileen Carson, and Willi Smith were very good friends and I loved him growing up. I was so glad he was being celebrated with a retrospective. My mother was a milliner and they worked together often. He used her hats in his presentations and fashion editors often styled their work together.
Looking at the catalog I noticed that many photos used my mother’s hats without accreditation. I reached out to the curatorial team and they assured me they would remedy this in the exhibition. Then they asked if I would to contribute to the Willi Smith Community Archive. So I wrote a short remembrance of Willi and my mother.
In the research process though I wanted to make sure that the hats were actually my mother’s. I did not want to mistakenly claim credit. Willi did work with other milliners. So I dug out all her boxes, spent some quality time with TimesMachine and other publication archives, and was able to attribute every one of her hats pictured in the catalogue with primary source materials. I became an obsessed hat detective. I love what I found so much I thought I would share.
But first a tiny bit of background. Eileen Carson was a big deal in the 1970s hat world- she had her work on the cover of GQ in 1974, lots of Bazaar, Vogue, WWD and NYT mentions (I count 8 NYT clips). Her style was very distinct. From 1977-80 she had a partnership with Patricia Underwood, an incredible milliner in her own right. Carson-Underwood was their diffusion line. My mother was active from 1972-87 roughly.
When she was in college, my mother taught herself to tailor. She bought 1940s thrift store garments, took them apart, and refit them for herself. By the time she graduated college she was an expert. She made most of my clothes when I was little and I remember her working on perfectly constructed blazers. Fully lined, many pockets.
But then she would get to the buttonholes. She hated making buttonholes. I don’t know if this was a technical issue since she had an ancient Singer sewing machine, but I remember her cursing and yelling as she would try and make buttonholes. It led her to some great strides in closure technology. Like the long strip of velcro she sewed on the shearling jacket she made me, the sound of which was a clarion call to every bully at my school.
She started making hats because her mother in law sent her a random bolt of black sparkly lycra. She was broke so she decided to make turbans to try and sell them. She brought them up to Bendel’s and Bergdorf’s and the buyers loved them and then she was a hat maker. But I blame button holes. I think that they drove her to it. Hats have no button holes.
My mother was the go to milliner for the smart black set in the 1970s. If you see a photo of Ava Cherry, Bethann Hardison (mom’s close friend) or Beverly Johnson - they all wore her hats. And her collaboration with Willi Smith was long and profound. Without some type of document these minor histories disappear.
L to R: Toukie Smith in Eileen Carson hat (Photo Anthony Barboza), Ava Cherry in probable Eileen Carson hat (identified by distinctive crease in crown), Eileen Carson in self designed hood c. 1977
Along with program notes from Willi Smith presentations that credit my mother, I gave the Willi Smith curators the following documents. Enjoy. (Captions NA on mobile)
