Welcome to Unstyled. I'm your host, Christine Barberick, co-founder and global editor-in-chief of Refinery 29.

Each week, I invite a notable person to come in and talk with us as we explore the funny, inspiring,

sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love, as told through the things that we wear.

Quick history lesson. Bethann Hardison reached legend status early in her modeling career when she walked the now infamous Battle of Versailles runway in November of 1973.

The fashion show, which was launched as a benefit to help restore Marie Antoinette's stomping

ground to its former glory, pitted French designers against Americans, the Couturiers against

the Nouveau Classics. It was the ultimate in drama by design, complete with theatrical sets

and star-studded audiences flown in straight from Hollywood.

A spectacle that tilted the balance of power in the fashion world toward the blossoming New York

City scene. But the person who turned most heads that day was Hardison, who became one of the

first black models to walk a European runway, changing the game right then and there. Flash forward to 2012, when

documentarian Timothy Greenfield Sanders released his quietly electrifying film About Face,

Supermodels Then and Now, which centered around the model elites of the 20th century who went

on the record with the harsh truths about aging in their respective industry. The film covered a lot of important ground,

but Bethann made sure the race conversation stayed central,

calling for designers to cast models across the racial spectrum,

channeling her energy into the Diversity Advocacy Agency,

Black Girls Coalition,

and launching the careers of other notable supermodels.

Back in 1973, Bethann Hardison was the face of a moment.

But today, she's so much more than that.

She is the force of a movement.

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