Inside Bethann Hardison’s fight to progress and diversify the fashion industry
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Inside Bethann Hardison’s fight to progress and diversify the fashion industry
In February, “Econ Extra Credit” is watching “Invisible Beauty,” a documentary portrait of fashion industry trailblazer Bethann Hardison. This week, “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio shares his thoughts on the film.
“Invisible Beauty” is a gift. For the low price of digital streaming admission, we get to witness the presence of a social justice campaigner who worked for decades to bring positive change not just to a company, but an entire industry.
Bethann Hardison was a model on the catwalks and in the magazines of high fashion before starting a highly successful agency to represent diverse models, including Black superstars Naomi Campbell and Tyson Beckford.
Throughout this month, we will explore some economics lessons in the film, including how the end of the Cold War affected the fashion industry. But the film spends more time exploring a cultural force outside the realm of traditional economics: the woman that is Bethann Hardison and the sheer will she possesses to effect change.
For decades, decision makers in fashion, most of whom were white, had it in their heads that putting Black models on covers would not sell either magazines or clothing. The film includes moments when the discrimination is upfront and unabashed. Agents recount conversations with clients who said out loud that they wouldn’t hire Black people as models because they didn’t want their clothing “to become a symbol of wealth for African Americans.”
Hardison was a changemaker who fought against this type of prejudice. But the film shows just how quickly progress made can backslide: What’s in vogue one year is out the next, including acceptance of Black models. So even after she shut down her agency, Hardison found herself being drawn back into the fashion world to hold it to account, like when she joined forces with Franca Sozzani, then-editor-in-chief at Italian Vogue, to produce a hit all-Black issue of the magazine.
This milestone did not play out in the distant decades of history. It is not the era of Jackie Robinson breaking what was then called “the color barrier” in baseball. That Italian Vogue issue came out in the summer of 2008, not long before the United States elected its first Black president.
In 2013, Hardison created the Diversity Coalition and coaxed power players in fashion to join. The coalition called out some of the biggest, most influential brands for failing to live up to their talk of diversity. Many, the film says, continued to use a single Black model on the runway, sometimes none. I was struck by parallels between Bethann Hardison’s work and the shrewd tactics of Shawn Fain, the innovative chief of the United Auto Workers union, who led the simultaneous strike against three big car companies last year.
“Invisible Beauty” is in large part an autobiography as Hardison co-directs the film with Frédéric Tcheng. But there are some critical moments. Though Hardison is regarded for her warmth and mentorship by many famous names in fashion, her relationship with her son is uneven. In the film, Kadeem Hardison, who rose to fame as Dwayne Wayne in NBC’s “A Different World,” chafes repeatedly at his mother’s uncompromising feedback. For her part, Bethann Hardison appears unwilling to sugarcoat her interactions with her son. These are some of the more uncomfortable moments included in the documentary.
I hope you’ll join us and watch this inspirational and eye-opening film.
“Invisible Beauty” is available to stream on Hulu, with a subscription. You can also buy or rent the film on Prime Video, Apple TV+ and YouTube.
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