Bethann Hardison Launches Foundation to Advance Young Talent

Legacy building is not something that Bethann Hardison pays much attention to, even though people routinely ask her about it.

That is about to change with the creation of the Bethann Hardison Foundation. In her incarnations as a model, agency owner, activist, adviser and documentarian, she has spent decades championing and guiding models, designers and other creatives. Decades before diversity, equity and inclusion became a corporate initiative, Hardison cofounded the Black Girls Coalition in 1988 with the model Iman to celebrate Black models, who were working in such abundance at that time, and to give back to the community. The group took on a watchdog role, supporting African American models and raising awareness about racism in advertising, homelessness and other issues. During the pandemic, Hardison set up the Designers Hub to empower future generations of Black designers and brands with the support of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Her immediate reaction to the suggestion that she needed to establish a foundation was, “Foundation? I’m still trying to figure out when I’m going to slow down, which doesn’t seem likely. That doesn’t seem to be meant for me anyway,” Hardison said.

Reluctant as she was to add another endeavor to her already full life, Hardison said. “I don’t like failing at anything. I wanted to make sure that if we decided to do something, we would do it well.”

Hardison consults for Gucci and was recently in Florence for a few days for the luxury house’s 2026 cruise show. On Tuesday night, she will be honored by the Gordon Parks Foundation at its annual gala. Earlier this month she was saluted as one of the honorees at the ACE Awards. And in April, Hardison took part in a Q&A after a screening of the documentary about her life “Invisible Beauty” at the V&A South Kensington.

Hardison’s namesake foundation has been realized with the help of its founding board members Jared Williams, Antoine Phillips, Kegan Webb and Kristine King, who have quietly been working on it for the past two and a half years. “The priority was establishing the 501(c)(3) to get that status to legitimatize the organization and to demonstrate a long-term vision and commitment to the work ahead,” she said.

While Williams encouraged Hardison to create something to leave behind, she said: “I never think of ‘legacy’ per se. I loved that this young man had the wherewithal to say to me, ‘When you’re no longer here.’ A lot of people get very nervous, when you talk about dying or no longer living. That is not how I feel about it. I know that we come here to die. I loved that he talked about how things needed to be set up for when I’m not here.”

To build the foundation’s strategy, Hardison turned to such leaders as the CFDA’s Lisa Metcalfe, brand strategist Len Peltier, Gucci’s Susan Chokachi, Jamestown Hudson’s Tom Mendenhall, journalist Alina Cho, designers Todd Oldham, Norma Kamali and Marc Jacobs, Google’s Stephanie Horton and authors Celestine Maddy and Akil West. At the insistence of the board’s founding foursome that one of Hardison’s family members be included, her son Kadeem joined the board. “He’s just been so thrilled by the whole idea,” Hardison said with a laugh.

The foundation will help to make young talent familiar with the business. Not looking to replicate what is already out there, the foundation aims to build something new and to allow creativity to guide the board members. “Bringing together all of these interesting people on the board, they each come with such interesting ideas. Len [Peltier] was the creative director at the Gap [until July 2023] and he used to work in the music industry, which was also an experience that I have had,” said Hardison, adding that the idea is not to limit the foundation’s scope to fashion, but to broaden it over time.

Well aware that many young people don’t understand how business works, she said the foundation will help expose them to that area and to share information. The aim is to also create initiatives to educate and lead creatives and young brands to a different plain in this new era of fashion. For now, meetings are virtual, which allows board members to be in different places.

“Using the expertise of the past to carve out a better path for the future is something that I feel really strongly about. We have all come up in our industry and we have learned. While some have had businesses under corporations or non-corporations, everything is changing in many different ways. The idea is to come with fresher ideas or different tools,” she said. “That’s what we are going to try to achieve, which I think we will. We’ve already made some motions.”