fashion

Toukie Smith, a former runway model and actor best known for her role on the sitcom “227,” has died. She was 74.

Smith died Wednesday after a long battle with multiple sclerosis, according to a statement from her twins, Airyn and Julian De Niro, provided to the Hollywood Reporter.

“Toukie was a force of nature,” they said, per the outlet. “She left an indelible mark on our hearts and on everyone lucky enough to know her.”

Born Doris Smith on Sept. 25, 1952, in Philadelphia, the Fashion Institute of Technology alum began her modeling career in 1972 and worked with top brand designers including Hubert de Givenchy, Chanel, Issey Miyake and Thierry Mugler over the course of her career. She was named “Bloomingdale’s Favorite Model” in 1978.

Toukie “was a nickname my grandmother gave me that came from a children’s record about a little red fire engine with lots of energy,” Smith told The Times in 1990. “I’ve always had lots of energy.”

Smith got her start modeling for her brother, the late designer Willi Smith who, with his WilliWear Ltd., pioneered a whimsical yet accessible style he dubbed “street couture.”

“Willi always had fun with fashion,” Smith said of her brother, who died of complications from AIDS in 1987. “He had a special energy and a love of keeping clothes from being too serious. He also totally designed for the masses.”

Toukie Smith with Sean Penn, left, and Robert De Niro at a celebrity benefit in honor of her late brother Willi Smith on Feb. 26, 1989.

(Adam Stoltman / Associated Press)

In their statement, Airyn and Jordan said their mother “shared in a remarkable family legacy that helped shape American fashion and culture” and that “her beauty, grace and unmistakable presence helped pave the way for generations of Black models and designers in fashion.”

Smiths pivoted to acting in the 1980s and her first screen credits included a few episodes of “Miami Vice” in 1987 and the 1988 feature “Me and Him.”

She then landed the role of Eva Rawley on the Marla Gibbs-led NBC sitcom, “227.” The series, which aired from 1985 to 1990, was notable for the portrayal of its middle-class Black family, the Jenkinses. Eva was introduced during the fourth season as an artist who moves into the show’s central apartment building and becomes the building’s manager. She would eventually leave the job and find work at an art gallery.

Her credits also include the films “Talkin’ Dirty After Dark” (1991), “I Like It Like That” (1994), “Joe’s Apartment” (1996) and “The Preacher’s Wife” (1996).

Smith’s interests also extended to food. She briefly ran a catering business, Toukie’s Taste, which famously provided the food for Sean Penn and Madonna’s wedding anniversary. She also had a restaurant in New York called Toukie’s in the 1990s, which gave a part of its proceeds to the Smith Family Foundation.

She was in a relationship with actor Robert De Niro from 1988 to 1996. The couple welcomed their twins in 1995, who were born via surrogate.

“I’ll always love you, Mom,” Airyn wrote in her tribute shared Monday on Instagram.

Smith is survived by her children, brother Norman Smith-Harllee and nephew Eliazar Smith-Harllee.

PRINCESS Andre is following in her famous parents’ footsteps as she carves out a career in showbiz – and now she has landed a major fashion deal.

The 19-year-old daughter of Peter Andre and Katie Price has teamed up with loungewear brand KAIIA for her first edit.

Called Princess, Redefined, the collection features tracksuits and accessories styled into 18 outfits, with Princess helping to choose the pieces.

Announcing the news on Instagram, Princess said she was “so excited” to unveil her first loungewear edit, describing it as “a collection that feels so me”.

Qasim Akhlaq, CEO of KAIIA, said: “Princess is really excited about her first edit. She’s had a big say in choosing the pieces and can’t wait for everyone to see what she’s been working on.”

Fans who sign up to the KAIIA newsletter and download its app will get exclusive early access on November 9. The collection will then launch to the public at 10am on November 10.

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Princess Andre’s career soars as she lands FOURTH series of reality show

The fashion deal comes just days after The Sun revealed her hit reality show The Princess Diaries is returning for a fourth series.

Filming is already underway, with new episodes expected to land early next year.

A source told us: “Everyone’s thrilled Princess is doing another series, it’s been so successful for ITV.”

The ITV2 show follows the teenager as she navigates family life and builds her career in the spotlight.

And Princess’s ambitions don’t stop at fashion and telly.

The Sun recently revealed she is hoping to take her cosmetics brand By Princess Stateside, with a trip planned for next summer to meet beauty retailers.

Sources also claimed the range is set to launch in Boots, marking another major step for her growing business.

Insiders told The Sun the aim is to make Princess “Britain’s answer to Kylie Jenner” as she prepares to take her beauty brand to the US.

Meanwhile, Princess is currently putting herself to the test alongside brother Junior, 21, on Celebrity Race Across The World.

The siblings took on a gruelling 7,500km journey from Borneo to Melbourne, surviving on a budget of just £26 each a day.

Speaking to Radio Times, Princess said: “We wanted to challenge ourselves, prove people wrong and show the real us.”

CALLUM Turner’s bid to bag the role of James Bond has had a boost — he’s advertising luggage for a fashion brand with links to the films.

The 36-year-old actor is the face of Louis Vuitton’s new trunk collection.

Bond author Ian Fleming incorporated their suitcases into 1963 book On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

And a set of the brand’s luggage appeared in 1985 Bond film A View to a Kill.

A source said: “Louis Vuitton is exactly the kind of fashion house Callum wants to associate himself with.

“The fact that Ian Fleming also mentioned Vuitton in his books is a clear indication that Callum is aligning himself with all the right campaigns.”

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Bond casting director Nina Gold was spotted at Bray Film Studios in Berkshire yesterday as screen tests for the role were understood to be taking place.

Callum’s odds of becoming Bond were 2/1 last night.

The Brit, who is married to singer Dua Lipa, 31, co-starred in the Fantastic Beasts movies.

Scottish actor Jack Lowden, 36, is the bookies’ favourite to take over as Bond with odds of 4/7, according to Ladbrokes.

Sinners actor Jack O’Connell, 36, and The Crown’s Josh O’Connor, 36, sit at 12/1.

Daniel Craig stepped down after the release of his fifth Bond film No Time To Die in 2021.

What’s the opposite of a victory lap?

One answer arrived this year in the form of “Music, Fashion, Film,” Charli XCX’s bracing follow-up to 2024’s Grammy-winning “Brat.” An emotionally complicated dance-pop album about the relationship between power and vulnerability, “Brat” struck a nerve in a weird cultural moment and finally brought Charli the kind of stardom she’d been openly seeking for ages. In the LP’s immediate aftermath, the English musician hungrily scooped up the spoils of her success — playing Coachella’s main stage, starring in a highbrow mockumentary, soundtracking Hollywood’s latest take on “Wuthering Heights.”

Yet “Music, Fashion, Film” wonders what it all meant. It’s a digitally enhanced rock record — probably 2026’s best thing-with-guitar — that cycles through thoughts on ambition and trend-chasing before landing with a moving sense of serenity on the idea that everybody dies and takes their accomplishments with them.

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“No One Lasts Forever” is the album’s final track, and Sunday night that was also Charli’s closer at Inglewood’s Kia Forum, where she headlined the second of two shows over the weekend.

Structurally, the concert bookended songs from “Brat” (for which she was accompanied by prerecorded tracks) with stuff from “Music, Fashion, Film” (for which a scuzzy live band backed her up). There were stray oldies too, including “Constant Repeat,” which she introduced as one of the first songs she wrote about her husband, George Daniel — “even though it’s not exactly truthful,” she added — and the landmark hyperpop cut “Vroom Vroom.”

She also did “House,” a spooky goth-folk song from “Wuthering Heights” that had her writhing on the stage in the white-hot heat of a single spotlight — a sex kitten turned scream queen (or perhaps vice versa). And she brought out Adéla, the Slovakian singer famously booted from the reality show that created Katseye, to do her viral hit “Nicole Kidman,” which is just one of a handful of rough-edged pop hits this year that demonstrate “Brat’s” lasting influence.

Indeed, what was illuminating about the middle of the show — basically a half-hour-long club night with strobes cranked happily to here’s-the-seizure-you-ordered — was seeing how very un-tired Charli’s fans are of being pulverized by songs like “Club Classics,” for which she donned her Superman’s-cape sunglasses, and “Guess,” during which pairs of underwear rained down on the audience in a nod to the music video for the song’s remix with Billie Eilish.

Charli had opened with the new album’s “Rock Music,” in which she declares that “the dance floor is dead”; here, her sarcasm fooled precisely nobody.

My favorite part was the home stretch of tunes from “Music, Fashion, Film”: “Camera,” a startlingly frank confession of her movie-star aspirations; “Magic Metal Montana,” a deeply tender ode to her friend and collaborator A.G. Cook; “SS26,” a jittery electro-punk jam about “walking on a runway that goes straight to hell.”

I love the strange emotion in these songs — the feeling that you might as well say what you want because the only thing more embarrassing than taking a risk is not taking one.

At some point, Charli lit up a cigarette and waved it around like someone who’d discovered a critical truth. What were they gonna do — make her end the concert early?

Define early; better yet, define late.