00:00Being a model is great if it's 60s, 70s, 80s, and the 90s.
00:04Being a model in the 2000 on, I feel sorry
00:08because it's not like the same as being a model.
00:10We really were models.
00:12We brought so much attention to the designer.
00:16We brought so much to the designer.
00:18He allowed us to be muses.
00:20He was inspired by us.
00:22We could walk, we could go down that runway
00:24and sell the clothes just the way we wanted.
00:26For Brute, I sat down with fashion
00:28and modeling industry titan Bethann Hartsford.
00:31After her start as a groundbreaking model,
00:33she became the first black woman to own a modeling firm.
00:36In time, she's transformed into an unwitting leader
00:39of the movement for more diversity and inclusion
00:41in the fashion and modeling industries.
00:43I remember one editor from Glamour said to me,
00:45Bethann, do you really think you can make a difference?
00:47And I just start laughing.
00:53I've done it before.
00:54People think that this is all brand new,
00:57having integrated shows or integration in any general
01:03when it comes down to either advertising.
01:06Because there was an agency called Black Beauty,
01:09they filtered all the black talent out for the advertisers.
01:14And when I came along, I was working in a garment district
01:17and I was working from the button factory
01:19to junior dresses to low-end dresses.
01:22I came up really growing in that world.
01:24And it's so cool, it was very cool.
01:27There were a lot of people of color.
01:30Most people don't know that, I see,
01:31because they think that it's been suppressed.
01:34It's not suppressed.
01:35Without her existing, then the opportunities
01:37wouldn't exist for me to do what I love.
01:39I mean, it's as simple as that.
01:41The fashion model to me was always the girl
01:43who wore the designer clothes
01:44and we supported the industry of designers.
01:47And then that changed, changed because Calvin Klein
01:50put the print model onto his runway
01:53and that became something that everybody else
01:56As time goes on, finally, the fashion model
02:00that we would think was a fashion model
02:01that didn't exist anymore, the girl of color,
02:03slowly began to do print.
02:05Regis Parnes came along to develop French Elle here,
02:10changed everything.
02:11That was the game changer.
02:13All of a sudden, Condé Nast and Hirsch
02:14had to really step it up
02:16because he was putting girls of color in the magazines,
02:19on the cover of magazines, and he didn't care.
02:21And it just changed things.
02:23I always know, because I've lived life long enough,
02:27you can change things.
02:29But in the end of the day, I really realized
02:30that at some given point, these girls are working.
02:33Look at this, they got editorials.
02:35They're going on like locations for Vogue, you know?
02:37That sort of helped me to start the Black Girls Coalition.
02:40It was more to celebrate the girls.
02:41It was, at the beginning, it wasn't about trying
02:43to do anything about diversity or speaking up
02:47about the lack of racial inclusion.
02:50They needed to know that that had never happened before.
02:52All of them working the way they were working
02:55had never existed before.
02:56And then eventually, you know,
02:57we started to come after commercial advertisers
03:00because we could sort of see
03:01that that wasn't a good situation either.
03:05And as time goes on, you'll see that we had that
03:08for like maybe from 88 to 93 or four.
03:13And then by that time, the industry started to change.
03:16You might need to be your foot against the pedal,
03:20but you can change things.
03:22Also, we didn't have casting directors
03:24and there was no stylist before for designers.
03:25They did everything in-house
03:27and that's how models could become muses.
03:30And once the outside people start to come in
03:32to influence the industry,
03:34all of a sudden the black girls, the glamorous girl,
03:37they all start to leave the runway, leave editorial.
03:42And that was the beginning of the end.
03:44That was mid-90s.
03:47So it took about 10 years
03:50to bring harsh attention to that.
03:53Took me a while.
03:55Alongside co-director Frederique Chang,
03:57Hardison presented Invisible Beauty,
03:59a documentary about her life and career,
04:01exploring how she became a steadfast advocate
04:03for more diversity, both on and off the runway.
04:07She's been the godmother of fashion.
04:13And whether people know or not,
04:15she has changed the way beauty is defined.
04:19The title was from a film I was working on prior.
04:21The storyline I was working on before
04:23was like an expose of the industry.
04:25But in time, my film kept sitting in dormant stage.
04:31So, you know, I just basically decided at one given point
04:36the film should be about me
04:37only because other people kept saying,
04:38I love that idea that you're doing,
04:40but someone should do a documentary on you.
04:42And that was the last thing I wanted
04:44because I was always someone
04:45who wanted to be behind the camera.
04:46I'm doing it because I've been asked to do it.
04:49And I feel a sense of responsibility about it.
04:52I didn't know I had such a story.
04:54Once I started seeing the footage
04:55and I understood what really contributions had been made.
04:59She is, to me, black history.
05:02And I tell people, once you meet this person,
05:06it's gonna change your life, whether you like it or not.
05:10I really feel like I've gotten it done before I go.
05:15That's what I feel like.
05:17Nothing more than that.
05:18The genius of it is that people respect
05:21and knew what I was doing.
05:22And I thought nothing of it.
05:23It was just like, you pick up the shovel,
05:27you dig the dirt, you make the hole,
05:28you put the seed in it.
05:29That's how I was looking at everything I ever did.
05:31Everyone's talking about diversity and inclusion right now.
05:34That directly stems from the work that Bethann did.
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