Before there was Naomi Campbell there was the late, great Naomi Sims, who died of breast cancer this past weekend. Sims paved the way for our greatest models of color today, appearing as the first black cover model of Ladies’ Home Journal in November of 1968 and landing coveted modeling gigs for the likes of Halston and Fernando Sánchez thus being dubbed the world’s “first black supermodel”. Though she was much more than a supermodel in the generic terms we use the word today. She was black and beautiful before the 1970’s made such a thing in vogue. She was the beginning of something much greater than she could have ever imagined, ushering in an era of discussion on how our culture truly defines what is beautiful. As Halston once said “Naomi was the first. She was the great ambassador for all black people. She broke down all the social barriers.” You can check out her amazing 1969 cover of LIFE and the 1967 New York Times fashion magazine cover on display in the Metropolitan Museum’s “The Model As Muse” exhibit. Naomi, you will be missed.