by @bethannhardison Part 1/3 - It was in the late 60’s that I met Willi Smith. He had dropped out of school and was hired by the sportswear company DIGITS as the designer of the brand. He became quickly popular being covered and supported by @wwd and magazine editors. Within a short time Willi Smith became successful, recognized. Soon after he was asked to do his own namesake brand by investors. It was not a good deal and he lost his name in the breakdown. He and a new friend Laurie Mallet decided to do a business called #WilliWear with a partner from India. @stephenburrowsworld started out with his crew of friends hand crafting clothes and leather goods. Opened a shop in Manhattan across and down the street from Max’s Kansas City called O Boutique. I was always intrigued by this crew because they moved about together. It was at least eight of them more or less. This too was the late ‘60’s. Both very talented and supported by others. Burrows was discovered by Joel Schulmacher and introduced to Geraldine Stutz, the head of then wonderful Henri Bendel on E. 57th St. Ms. Stutz offered Burrows his own boutique and workroom in the store and named it Stephen Burrows World. It was a hit from the beginning. I was introduced as a model by Willi to Bobby Breslau, one of Stephen’s right hand creatives. But at that moment I was not a Burrows type. He didn’t see it. It was interesting watching this creative time in New York. There were many interesting young designers of color having successful moments - James Daugherty, Arthur McGee, Scott Barrie, Jon Haggins, Fabrice, and Julio to name a few because there were more doing their thing as a well. It was interesting that Stephen and Willi were not friends per se, so different in style and what they did as brands. How each were successful but in different ways. Willi was commercially successful and Burrows was more interestingly edgy, offbeat but still desirable.