Sketchbook, Cotton Club Gala Costume Designs, 1985
Designed by Willi Smith
Pen and ink, collage, fabric swatches on paper
Courtesy of Mark Bozek

Smith’s sketchbook is opened to a spread of costume design drawings for The Original Cotton Club-Gala presented by La MaMa Experimental Theater and WilliWear Ltd. in 1985. Smith’s designs for the costumes were inspired by his travels in Senegal and the costumes Black American entertainers wore when performing at the original Cotton Club in Harlem from 1923–1940.

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