‘Invisible Beauty’- Sundance

Cameras are rolling to capture Bethann Hardison hard at work on her memoir. Diving into her archives, Bethann chronicles her life from youth to the 70s runway as one of the first Black supermodels and a pioneering agent in the 90s. Someone the general public has probably never heard of but her impact is seen everywhere within fashion.   Invisible Beauty is a riveting tale of how to implement and maintain effective change within a system known for its blatant racism. 

Hardison collaborated with fashion documentarian, Frédéric Tcheng, to serve as co-director and writer in a standard documentary to reveal the erased history of the icon’s contributions to the fashion industry. The structure splits between influential talking heads praising Hardison to visiting her upstate home to discuss the best way to lay out her history. 

Hardison’s story originates in the iconic Belford Stuyvesant where she grew up with her father Iman, who mentored Malcolm X and taught her to value more than fame. As a saleswoman in the garment district, designer Willi Smith spotted her beginning her runway career. With her androgynous look and signature walk she dominated the runway alongside Beverly Johnson and Iman. Although she found success in New, there was a sense of hostility from the fashion scenes in Europe,

Blending her background in fashion and the radicalization of her upbringing, she moved into booking and representation to challenge the race politics found within fashion. In 1984 she launched the Bethann Management Agency and with Iman, in 1988 she confounded The Black Girls Coalition she put in the efforts to support African American models who were often othered in the modeling space. Her agency discovered some of the most notable names from varied backgrounds such as Kimora Lee Simmons and Tyson Beckford. she was a safe space for models of color and created a community that was missing for them. The documentary uses interviews with many of the lives she has impacted to emphasize how she revolutionized a mostly white industry,

Hardison slipped into retirement but was called back onto the scene when the rise of ‘heroin chic’ hit the market. In a 2007 press conference, she called out the regressive standards of modeling slipping back into whiteness holding high-profile designers accountable for their lack of Black models in their runway shows. While she is a co-director this film is not self-indulgent but tells the stories of all the people she helped in the face of racism that makes her compassion and selflessness shine through.  Her involvement turns the history of changing the fashion industry’s discrimination into a memoir that cements her legacy.

Invisible Beauty allows the audience to experience the fashion industry from the 70s to the current through the eyes of a true pioneer and disruptor.