Introduction

Community

Cooper Hewitt relied on Willi Smith’s friends, collaborators, and admirers to document his influence on fashion, art, and design. The following recollections, videos, objects, and ephemera have been shared with the museum through an open call for the Willi Smith Digital Community Archive; an Oral History collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture; and as interviews and essays published in Willi Smith: Street Couture (Cooper Hewitt/Rizzoli 2020). Thank you to everyone who contributed!