It’s been over two months since the CFDA announced that it will honor Bethann Hardison with the Founders Award on June 2, but she’s still in a contemplative mood. “I always knew that I could make a difference,” she says of her more than five decades promoting diversity in fashion. Her work as an activist has ranged from the accidental (modeling alongside Pat Cleveland and Alva Chinn in the now historic Battle of Versailles) to the strategic (campaigning for the representation of black beauty in 1980s fashion advertising.) And her influence has notably permeated the runways, advertising campaigns, and magazine editorials of the past two years, from Malaika Firth reclining in a moment of glamorous repose for Prada’s game-changing fall 2013 campaign to the wave of fresh new model faces of color—Cindy Bruna, Binx Walton, and Riley Montana to name just a few.
The move towards change reached critical mass last September, when her Diversity Coalition published an open letter that called for the fashion councils in London, Milan and Paris to do more to promote diversity on the runways. “I knew this was possible because I was talking to fashion people, who aren’t a closed-minded group. I believed that I could make a change because I believed in them,” Hardison says, noting that the real work is just beginning. “If model agencies can seek to find more girls of color and have more girls to submit, the better the chances of more models of color getting booked . . . Activism has to remain active.” We caught up with her to talk about fashion’s exciting new moment—and its future.
What is your earliest memory of fashion?
The word fashion didn’t exist for me until the last ten or fifteen years. I grew up when it was called the apparel business, in the Garment District. My first job in the industry was with a button company called Cabot. The man who hired me thought I was dressed too well. This was a factory. He worried about my clothes getting splattered with paint. They supplied custom buttons to various houses that made suits and skirts, and so he would send me out to meet with designers to show them the samples. That was the beginning of me going into the inner sanctum. And then I went to work for Marty Gutmacher, a dress company at 1359 Broadway, and later Ruth Manchester, a junior dress company. I remember the addresses. That’s how important the Garment District was. You remember where people were located because that’s how it was divided up: the lower end, the juniors, and the upper crust.
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How did you enter the world of modeling?
It was with a senior executive at Federated, the company that oversaw all the shows for Macy’s. I was taking the dresses from Ruth Manchester to them to consider for a show. And I said, “If you want to have a good show you’ll put me in it.” He was like, “What’s your name?” He later called and said, “I want that girl in my show.” And that was the beginning. I went to Sweden to model for a while, and then I went to Ibiza. Life began to take hold in a different way, but I always kept a full-time job because I never thought I could make enough money. Eventually, Willi Smith thought I would be great for Stephen Burrows who hired me to be his showroom girl.
And then there was Le Grand Divertissement à Versailles.
Yes, and I almost didn’t make it, because each girl had to have three designers who wanted her to be in the show. Halston said, “If no one takes you in the end, I’ll put your name down.” But I wasn’t a Halston girl. So it was Anne Klein, Oscar de la Renta, and Stephen who chose me.
What did Versailles mean to you and the eleven other models of color who were cast in the show? Did the night feel historic?
We never thought it was historic. We were so busy just trying to get through the show! [laughs] It was a lot of pressure. And it was also hard because I knew they were counting on me since I was known to be a good walker. But I was also a good model. There were six or seven of us who got written up in the papers all the time—they called us the Black Stallions.
During your days modeling alongside Pat Cleveland and Alva Chinn for Stephen, was race and diversity a conscious thought?
We were always conscious of being of color. I’m coming off the Civil Rights Movement. You’re hearing “black is beautiful.” And we always had a lot of people of color in advertising in Ebony, models like Richard Roundtree and Helen Williams. But that was more commercial. We were more in the fashion apparel business. And through the black is beautiful slogan,we began to sense that advertisers were seeking something different. And along comes Naomi Sims. Halston was coming up and so was Giorgio di Sant’Angelo [both used many non-white models]. Arthur McGee. Jon Haggins. It was such a stylish, interesting time—artists finding buildings downtown that were being abandoned, in a part of town we all called South of Houston, which became known, of course, as SoHo. It was a different time. Did we think black and white? Yes, we were conscious of race and the way we looked. But if you had style, you were it.
When and how did you transition into the agency world?
It was 1980 and I had done a lot. I didn’t want to walk down a runway ever again. So I went to work for Click Models and helped them develop the company for two years. We helped change the industry. Click was extraordinary. We had a different vision about what we wanted to see. We weren’t getting the girl or boy next door. We were finding kids who were interesting. And we were helping to build the brands of Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein because we had Bruce Weber. By 1984 I had started Bethann Management. I needed to pull away to pursue my own destiny.
When did you begin speaking out about diversity?
Well I did it when I was at Click. But it was much easier to do it on my own. I would hear people say things on the phone: “I just want you to find me one great black girl.” And then I would begin educating them. To me, that wasn’t activism. It was just educating. When I started the Black Girls Coalition in 1988, people thought it was activism, but I really just wanted to celebrate the girls.
There has been noticeable progress since you formed the Diversity Coalition. What was the tipping point?
I think it was the letter itself. And Miuccia Prada started to move it along. She’s the leader in all of this. She was already beginning to show girls of color seasons before—and then that ad, with [Malaika Firth] sitting on that chair with that tweed coat on. That was a major visual moment. It changed things. Other people started to feel better about casting these girls. And from there you began to see other girls in advertising. That’s when I thought, Okay, okay.
Were there any runway moments that stood out?
I like that Céline has embraced black girls on the runway. And there was Burberry, a house that used Jourdan Dunn before it was even popular. And then what Gucci did with Joan Smalls.
Of the younger generation of models of color working right now, who do you find to be the most inspiring and promising?
They’re all promising to me. I love Riley, Binx, and Cindy. They all have such promise. We have so few, but we need many more strong models of color to be competitive.
We’re all familiar with Yves Saint Laurent’s dedication to promoting a wide range of beauty. Of the designers working today, who has picked up that baton?
Zac Posen. He’s like the old-school designers in that he believes in the model. He will take a girl who hasn’t been hot in over two years and he’ll bring her back. You can tell that this is his idea and not the casting director’s.
Where were you when you first found out about the CFDA award and what was your initial reaction?
I was with Naomi Campbell waiting for her to do an interview with Diane von Furstenberg at Sirius Satellite Radio. When Diane told me I was quite stunned. I hugged Diane first and then just went to Naomi and really wept. I was moved because this revolution is about a philosophy, a point of view, a stance. It’s changing how people think. It’s not an easy thing to do. I felt like the revolution was being acknowledged.
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