REMEMBERING IMG’S IVAN BART
Industry sources reported the passing of IMG Models former president Ivan Bart on Friday, October 27th, 2023. Bart was 60 years old.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bart died following a short illness. and “In a statement obtained by the outlet, Mark Shapiro—president and chief operating officer of parent company Endeavor—called him ‘…a trailblazer in the fashion industry. During the course of three decades at IMG Models, Ivan quite literally changed the shape and face of the modeling industry from within,’ part of the statement continued. ‘His relentless pursuit for diversity and inclusion challenged fashion’s gatekeepers and created household names whose omnipresence has inspired generations.'”
According to People magazine, the Brooklyn, N.Y. native, “…famously championed diverse casting and inclusion, and was also an outspoken supporter of plus-size models.”
A real team player, in an interview with David Colman in Interview from 2013, Bart said, “Before you start asking me questions, I hope it gets stated in this thing that, for the record, I didn’t want to participate.
“Because—and this is key—I always feel like our work is really about our clients. It’s not about us. There seems to be a big push for me to participate. Also, for the record, I want to say that I’m very proud of some of the managers that are at IMG who are being featured but also I want it to be stated that it’s really about the global team of IMG Models—its five offices. I feel where we outweigh our competitors is the fact that we do have a network that’s very strong and is in all the fashion capitals: New York, London, Milan, Paris, and now Sydney. We’re very connected and we work well, and by featuring some of our managers, it’s not to say that there aren’t many, many more of equal importance.”
Bart was eulogized by Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, E!, and many more outlets, quoting models Cindi Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Haley Bieber, Gigi Hadid, and many other celebrities who mourned his passing.
Image, above: NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 10: Ivan Bart attends the “South Pacific” 70th Anniversary Gala Concert at The St. Regis on December 10, 2018, in New York City. Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images.