How Bethann Hardison changed the face of fashion - and why that matters

It's Been a Minute

NPR

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4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

Bethann Hardison is the fashion icon behind so many fashion icons: she worked as a modeling agent in the era of the supermodel – brokering the careers of stars like Kimora Lee Simmons and Tyson Beckford. And when models of color all but vanished from view at the turn of the millennium – she forced designers to bring them back. Host Brittany Luse sits down with Bethann to discuss the new documentary about Bethann's life, Invisible Beauty, and why fashion imagery, while fraught, is still powerful in our culture.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to it's been a minute from NPR, I'm Brittany Loose.
0:07.4	And today, we're discussing the fashion icon behind your favorite fashion icons, Bethan
0:14.1	Hartison.
0:16.1	Bethan is the subject and co-director of a new documentary about herself, called Invisible
0:21.5	Beauty.
0:22.7	And why shouldn't she be the star of her own documentary?
0:25.8	She was a powerful modeling agent in the era of the Supermodel.
0:30.4	She managed stars like Morely Simmons and Tyson Beckford, but before all that, she was something
0:36.3	of a Supermodel herself in New York's Swinging 70s.
0:40.8	The 70s was a very interesting time as with the late 60s.
0:44.0	At that time in life, anyone with style could be invited anywhere.
0:47.6	You just have to have style, you don't have to be famous, so you could be in a room with
0:51.1	a troublemaker party in a small area, or, you know, Salvador Dali or something.
0:56.7	Bethan had style and a look.
1:00.2	She was tall and dough-eyed with deep brown skin and very short natural hair, a different
1:05.8	look than the white blonde's popular at that time.
1:08.9	And Bethan lived.
1:11.4	She went from working in a button factory to jet-setting around the world to walk for
1:15.4	Ise Miyaki and Claude Montana.
1:18.3	And she rocked a runway alongside the likes of Iman and Pat Cleveland.
1:23.5	In 1973, Bethan modeled at the Battle of Versailles.
1:27.8	The historic fashion faced off between Americans and the French.
	...

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