Pioneering Fashion Icon Dead at 61

Naomi Sims, a model who broke racial barriers with her magazine cover appearances in the 1960s, died Saturday, Aug. 1, from breast cancer at age 61 in Newark, N.J.

Sims's shot on the cover of a 1968 issue of "Ladies' Home Journal" is considered a landmark step in achieving equal opportunity for non-white models. According to the New York Daily News, it was the first time a black woman graced the cover of a mainstream women's magazine.

Sims came to prominence at roughly the same time the "black is beautiful" movement was taking hold in America, elevating African-American women to an unprecedented level of exposure in the fashion world.

After finding success as a model both on the catwalk and in publications such as Life Magazine and Cosmopolitan, Sims was featured in an iconic AT&T ad campaign featuring multi-racial models. Apart from modeling, Sims was also an entrepreneur, starting a made-to-fit wig company for black women; authoring advice books such as "All About Success for the Black Woman;" and starting the Naomi Sims line, which included cosmetics, beauty salons and a fragrance.