Roshumba Williams Reveals the Simple Secret That Helped Her Succeed As a Fashion Correspondent

The six-time SI Swimsuit model credits personal connection for her impressive red carpet career.

Roshumba Williams / Gilbert Flores/Getty Images

Roshuma Williams has built quite a name for herself. She is known for her modeling career, her acting roles and her hosting gigs. She is an established expert in both the modeling realm—about which she wrote several books—and the world of fashion—in which she has built a career as a red carpet correspondent.

It is the latter which the SI Swimsuit team sought to learn more about at the magazine’s 60th anniversary launch events in May. With a total of six features in the annual magazine over the years, we know Williams in a modeling capacity, and we enjoyed learning more about her illustrious career in fashion.

The Illinois native took the opportunity to detail the key to her success as a correspondent on ABC’sOn the Red Carpet. According to Williams, it all revolves around her personal relationships with fashion designers.

As she provides red carpet fashion commentary following major events like the Oscars, the Emmys, the CMA Awards or the AMA Awards, Williams doesn’t simply remark on the physical appearance of attendees’ gowns, she likewise offers a history of the brands responsible for the designs. “As much as we love the glam, the fashion, we love the history of it, too,” she explains to us in Hollywood, Fla. “I’ve made it my business to study my history.”

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For her wealth of knowledge about each label, she has her deep personal connections with the designers to thank. “I was a muse to Saint Laurent, so I actually worked with Monsieur Saint Laurent,” Williams remarks, “and he used me as a muse to build gowns on.” Because of their rapport, Williams can speak to the history of the brand better than most others, making her red carpet commentary more nuanced.

More than that, though, Williams views herself as a conduit for designers, both living and deceased. Because she has “actually touched Gianni Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Christian Lacroix, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Geoffrey Beene,” she has become the means by which “their legacy [is] passed on to these new generations,” she says.

For Williams, that has been both the most meaningful part of her career on the red carpet—and the most integral component to her success.