June 30, 2008--Now that the much buzzed about all-black issue of Vogue Italia has hit stands, readers can finally take in the mezmorizing glamour of black models filling the glossy's pages—even if they can't read the text, which will remain in Italian, even in U.S.-circulated copies of the magazine. I sat down with legendary modeling agent and fashion muse Bethann Hardison for an interview in the special issue. Here it is, for you, in English, so you can read for yourselves that, as always, Bethann Hardison calls it like she sees it.

"Call me controversial; there's no one exciting out there," she says. "No one!" Over the past year, Bethann (in the industry she is known by her first name only, like her good friend, Iman) has held several forums about the lack of black models on the runways, in major editorial spreads and advertising campaigns. And because she is Bethann, the forums have been attended by a Who's Who of fashion, with more A-listers waiting outside the door than at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party.

At a sold out event at the Bryant Park Hotel, Bethann's guest included Iman, Vogue's Andre Leon Talley, fashion director Constance White, Liya Kebede and Naomi Campbell. Bethann helps to manage Naomi, and although the woman some have described as a "beauty dipped in chocolate" has a well known temper, she is always on her best behavior around Bethann. Talley, who has been working on the Obama campaign, paraphrased the dynamic orator by saying, "Change we can believe in has to happen. This struggle is so important to all of us. They will say this is not an issue but it is."

Currently in preproduction for "Invisible Beauty," her documentary about black models in the fashion industry, I recently sat down with Bethann at her Gramercy Park apartment to talk about why black is still beautiful, even if the runways and the glossies don't always seem to say so.

Q: Tell me about your early career in the fashion industry.

Bethann: I come from the garment district. The word fashion never came up. I started in a button company. Then I started modeling years later. I was delivering a dress to Bernie Ozer, who was head of merchandising for junior dresses and sportswear at the Federated Stores. I said, "You should put me in your show." I had been a child tap dancer, and I was always an entertainer. He didn't answer me, but when I got back to Ruth Manchester's, the junior dress company where I'd been working, there was a message: Bernie Ozer wants you to do his show. That was the first time I walked runway.

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