Janette Beckman

Page from WilliWear News showing Willi Smith in a cobalt blue blazer holding his dog Rufus and pointing down to an oversized open dictionary with text describing the WilliWear Fall 1986 collection

In 1986, I was working with Kim Hastreiter taking photographs for her downtown New York magazine Paper. Kim asked me if I wanted to photograph Willi and some models wearing his clothes for WilliWear News.
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I was a huge fan of his clothes; I wore one of his oversized WilliWear coats every day. Willi was delightful; I photographed him with his dog Rufus for the cover of the magazine. The magazine was styled like the early Paper magazine issues, with a fold-out broadsheet and fun, graphic, black-and-white photos. It was my first fashion magazine shoot.

Page from WilliWear News showing Willi Smith in a cobalt blue blazer holding his dog Rufus and pointing down to an oversized open dictionary with text describing the WilliWear Fall 1986 collection

WilliWear News, Fall 1986 Collection, 1986. Photographed by Janette Beckman, 1986