For Tyson Beckford, modeling once seemed like a “fantasy” far from his life growing up in the Bronx.
The model, 53, reflects on her early career in the Hulu docuseries In fashion: 90s. Vogue editor Tonne Goodman draws a parallel between Beckford and legendary designer Ralph Lauren, who made him the face of Polo, noting, “What a lot of people don’t know about Ralph is that he actually grew up in an ordinary working-class family. He grew up in the Bronx.”
Beckford admits that modeling wasn’t on his radar. He was falling for the wrong crowd before an opportunity presented itself and changed his life.
“I started modeling because of my late brother Patrick. I took a photo with Source hip-hop magazine. I remember showing him and he was so excited for me,” Beckford says in the sixth and final episode of the series.
“He basically told me to stop being on the streets and go be an actor, go be a model, go be whatever you want to be.”
Beckford listened to what his brother was saying and took those words to heart. It would be the last conversation they ever had.
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Tyson Beckford and Bridget Hall in 1996.
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“I remember getting a call at maybe 3 in the morning that he had been killed,” says Beckford. “My head was fucking up. I’m going to the subway to go kill the guys that killed him. I’m loading the gun and I remember his words like he was standing next to me.”
At that point, Beckford says, “[It] it just dawned on me that this is not the life I want, no. And that basically changed my life. I went from bad shit— to a turnaround and going to auditions and casting.”
The story repeats what Beckford said in a 2021 interview when he discussed his brother.
“He was the oldest in the family so for me he was like my inspiration, my teacher. He was the real gangster of the family, so everything I know, I know from him. He just said, ‘These streets are for you, man. You got talent, you can remember lines,’ he recalled at the time.
“He saw it in me long before I saw it in me, that I needed to act like a model. He said, ‘Look, you can make it on the street, but there’s no need to. Go do some real paper.’ From then on I just looked ahead and left the streets behind.”
For Beckford, his star would continue to rise throughout the ’90s. In the final episode of the documentary, he recalls the day he first auditioned for Ralph Lauren.
“One day we got an invitation to audition for Ralph Lauren. I try not to get too excited, but they made me take Polaroids with no shirt on,” he recalls, adding, “I’m about 20, 30 minutes out of the casting call, and my phone rings and my agent is on the line, and he says : ‘Oh my God, you’ve got it’. And I said, ‘The place I just came from? No way.’ After the Polo commercials came out and suddenly I’m the face of the brand? That day, that moment, my life changed. People started looking at me differently that day.”
In fashion: 90s now streaming on Hulu.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education