Bethann Hardison Receives The Daily Front Row’s Highest Honor

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For decades, Bethann Hardison has been changing the fashion industry for the better, from her own modeling days (see: 1973’s historic Battle of Versailles show), to lifting up other models while running her own agency, Bethann Management, in the ’80s, to tirelessly calling for more diversity in the fashion business. Hardison is the recipient of this year’s Fashion Media Award for Lifetime Achievement not just because of what she has done, but what she continues to do, making a difference and saying what needs to be said — and always with humility, honesty, and humor.

How did you get your start?

I started out in the garment industry—my first job was at a custom button factory—before I got discovered by [designer] Willi Smith. When I went to work with Willi, first it was as an assistant, but also a muse, and he asked me to model. I went from Willi to Stephen Burrows, starting as Stephen’s showroom model before I became his right-hand assistant and ran the design studio with him. Willi and Stephen were my two key pillars; I really came up with them.

Who else played an important part in your early career?

Bruce Weber and Steven Meisel were also important to me; both believed in me and were big supporters of mine. Bruce was introduced to me by Willi Smith, back when Bruce first picked up a camera and started to do photography. He and I would go to Central Park and take photographs, because Willi believed I could be a fashion model of that ilk—a print girl—even when I didn’t. Steven believed in me as a person, too; he thought I had a great eye. They both supported me when I later started my own [model management] company. There are so many people who decided to stick with me, chose to take the risk with me when I started my independent little model agency in Tribeca, and they wanted me to do what I didn’t want to do. I never wanted to have a model agency, but I got talked into it.

How did you get convinced to launch Bethann Management in 1984?

I was working at an agency at the time, and somebody in Paris wanted to start her own agency in New York and knew me and poached me. I knew she was so successful and had such a great eye, so I sort of went along with it. But it turned out, she didn’t have the same intentions as she’d told me she had. She wasn’t going to make me a partner; she was just going to have me work for her, which I learned through my accountant. I was close with Calvin Klein and Perry Ellis, and they were always saying, “But I thought you owned part of that company. Why are we supporting them?” Stephen was telling me to start my own agency; everyone was saying I should. It was meant for me to do, obviously, but at the end of the day, it was never my idea. I never wanted to. That’s why I quit 13 years into it, at the point of success, because I felt that I just didn’t want to die knowing that on my tombstone would be “Bethann, who had a model agency.”

So you had other ambitions.

No ambitions! I had other ideas, maybe, but ambition, no. Ambition’s not my strength. Maybe bravery. By year 11, I was saying to my assistant, “I gotta get out of this thing,” so I made my decision then that I had to be out by year 13. And I was! Well, I kept the office, in Tribeca on North Moore Street, for some time after I gave up the agency. I wanted to get rid of Tyson [Beckford] as a client, but then I couldn’t, because Ralph Lauren had just given us a deal and I had to continue to oversee it. So I got rid of all the models except for him, and I kept my office.

You’re quite close with Naomi Campbell, too.

Naomi, I call her a Buffalo soldier, because she really stayed on top of what was going on in the industry. She would always make me aware of things. Most people think I represented Naomi, but I never did. I was just always close to her.

How did you meet Naomi?

The women who discovered her in London, Beth Boldt, called me when I’d had my agency for just a year. She said, “I have a girl for you that I think you should take care of, and I’d like you to come meet her.” So I went to London to meet Naomi and her parents. And when they came back, I didn’t wind up getting her. She didn’t come to me. She went where she went; she went to Ford, who had already been in touch with her, but she didn’t know anybody else in America. The only person she knew was Bethann. So as soon as she got to a studio where they were shooting—she was brought in for direct booking—she called me and said, “I’m here, and please, I don’t know anyone. I want to stay close to you.” And I met Iman when she first came to the country, so she always calls me her Statue of Liberty.

You’ve mentored so many. Do you go to many shows these days?

I don’t love fashion shows, but I love to watch anything that Marc [Jacobs] or Ralph [Lauren] does. There’s this community of younger independent brands that started back in 2018 that I like to support, like Keith Herron, the creative director at Advisory, and Sergio Hudson. I go to their shows when I can. Oh, and there’s this designer I’m absolutely crazy for, I keep saying I’m going to go to his show but I never get there. This year, I’m going. It’s a Mexican designer named Patricio Campillo. I finally got the opportunity to meet him in Mexico City recently; he’s a good friend of my friend. We went to dinner, and I was like a groupie, I was so excited. And I love what Alessandro Michele is doing with Valentino; anything he does, I want to see. I got hired by Gucci as their global consultant and advisor from 2019 to 2025, while Alessandro was there, and I still work with them in a different capacity. I’m still working, whether I’m spending time in upstate New York, downstate New York, Mexico, and Morocco, living between different time zones. I’m always working.