The Parsons Benefit is an annual celebration of the transformational role fashion, design and the arts play in today’s world. The evening highlights the work of our students and gathers an esteemed assembly of industry leaders, Parsons alumni, and other luminaries from our global network to recognize recipients of The Parsons Table Award.

6:30 p.m. Cocktail Reception

7:30 p.m. Dinner and Program

Creative Black Tie

 
About the Awards
The Parsons Table Award recognizes individuals who have made a noteworthy impact on the design industry and profoundly inspired our students. Recipients of this year's Parsons Table Award include:

Thom Browne, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Thom Browne

Bethann Hardison Fashion Advocate, Documentarian, and Luxury Brand Consultant

Libby Wadle CEO, J. Crew Group

Hosted by Nicole Ari Parker, Actor, Producer, and Entrepreneur

Tickets are available at https://parsonsbenefit.com/.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. The first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. Co-directed by Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng (DIOR AND I), the film is part memoir, warts and all (with candid accounts from her son, actor Kadeem Hardison from A Different World), and part paean to an unsung hero.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

Tickets are available at https://filmforum.org/film/invisible-beauty?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPLE8sbkgAMVgvKUCR0qaARLEAAYASAAEgJ_GfD_BwE.

Naomi Campbell called her “Ma” but to many she’s simply Bethann. A pioneering model, agent and activist, Bethann Hardison is a pivotal figure in the fight for racial diversity in fashion. In her lifetime, she has seen the pendulum swing toward and away from the Black model. At every setback, she spoke up and rallied her colleagues and clients in the industry to advance change. Now in her 70s, the Brooklyn native is in the midst of writing her memoir, taking stock of her own legacy at a moment when the fashion industry is shaken — once again — by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Directing in tandem with Frédéric Tcheng (Halston, Dior and I), Hardison is a force at the helm of her own story. Together, they trace Hardison’s impact on fashion from runway shows in the 1970s to roundtables about the lack of racial diversity in the early 2000s. Candid and audacious, Invisible Beauty is an absorbing record of the racial evolution of fashion and an original contemplation on the life of a radical thinker.

Hardison embodied the ethos “Black is beautiful” long before the fashion industry acknowledged this truth. As a model, she walked the runway alongside Iman. As an agent, she discovered people such as Tyson Beckford and mentored supermodels like Naomi Campbell. Featuring intimate interviews with collaborators including Campbell, Beckford, Iman, Tracee Ellis Ross, Fran Lebowitz, Pat Cleveland, Stephen Burrows, Whoopi Goldberg, Ralph Lauren, Bruce Weber, as well as her son Kadeem Hardison, Invisible Beauty chronicles the life of a maverick at the epicenter of major representational shifts in fashion. The film also gazes toward the future with insights from a new generation Hardison has inspired, including Zendaya, designer-activist Aurora James and designer Kerby Jean-Raymond.

Tickets are available at https://newportfilm.com/films/invisible-beauty/.