‘Invisible Beauty’ Review: A Bespoke Documentary Befitting a Fashion Industry Force
variety.comLisa Kennedy There is much that is lovely to gaze upon in the elegantly tailored documentary “Invisible Beauty,” about fashion maverick Bethann Hardison, whose role in her industry, starting in the late ’60s and continuing into the present, has been remarkable personally and game-changing culturally.
Those five decades — hers and the industry’s — are expertly woven together by co-directors Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng, using a cache of personal photos, a wealth of archival images, clips and interviews sewn together by Hardison’s sharing of recollections and insights.
The film is also buoyed by a delicate, sometimes moody piano-led score courtesy of Marc Anthony Thomas, with some additionally vivid musical choices that match the energy of the late, “Black is Beautiful” ’60s and the fashion-fast-forward ’70s.
When there were shifts in how the fashion industry viewed models of color, Hardison was there as participant but more often catalyst.
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