Renauld White, Debonair Model Who Broke Barriers, Dies at 80

Renauld White, who is widely considered to be the country’s first Black male supermodel — and who for nearly half a century was an elegant and enduring image of American style, walking the runways for Bill Blass, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Jeffrey Banks and Donna Karan, as well as being the first Black American model to appear on the cover of GQ magazine — died on June 26 in Manhattan. He was 80.

His niece Alonda Gregory confirmed the death, in a hospital. No cause was given.

Mr. White, at a lanky 6-foot-2 with a chiseled face and aquiline nose, was for decades a sought-after avatar of male beauty, photographed for editorial and commercial work by fashion stars like Charles Tracy, Herb Ritts, Horst P. Horst and Bruce Weber. In the 1970s, he sported a short Afro and a mustache — and, often, a disarming smile, as he did for the cover of GQ’s November issue in 1979.

That was a milestone: Though the first Black model to appear on GQ’s cover, in 1977, was the Swiss-born Urs Althaus, Mr. White was the first American. (The showman Sammy Davis Jr. was the first Black man to appear on a GQ cover, which he did in September 1967.)

Mr. White was, for a time, the face of Arrow shirts and Black Tie cologne. He was a pitchman for Miller Lite and Delta Air Lines. He was the first Black model to sell a hair product mostly marketed to white men: Vitalis Hair Tonic. He appeared on the Phil Donahue show in 1978, to discuss the myth of the “cute but dumb” reputation that accrued to those in his profession. He was as ubiquitous and desirable, Mr. Banks said, “as Naomi Campbell would be later.”

When he began designing under his own name in the late 1970s, Mr. Banks, who had worked at Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, made sure that Mr. White modeled every collection he produced.

“He carried the clothes, he looked beautiful,” Mr. Banks said. “He was the quintessential American man.”