Ivan Bart, Former President of IMG Fashions, Dies at 60

Ivan Bart, the previous long-time president of IMG Fashions, died over the weekend after a brief sickness. He was 60 years previous.

His demise was confirmed by Mark Shapiro, president and chief working officer of Endeavor, which owns IMG Fashions.

Over a 30-year profession, Bart helped form the careers of most of the most sought-after fashions within the enterprise resembling Carolyn Murphy, Stephanie Seymour, Kate Moss, Gisele Bündchen, Joan Smalls, Kate Upton, and Tyra Banks. Bart was effectively regarded within the business as an brisk and charismatic government.

“It’s with overwhelming unhappiness and deep remorse that I share that Ivan Bart, long-time president of IMG Fashions and a trailblazer within the trend business, handed away over the weekend,” Shapiro stated in an e-mail to staff.

Born in 1963 and raised in Brooklyn, Bart obtained his faculty diploma in psychology. He began doing public relations for a agency, which had a really small modeling company hooked up to it and he realized the enterprise. In 1994, he turned artistic director of IMG Fashions, which was simply beginning a mannequin division, and the agency had simply signed Niki Taylor and Tyra Banks.

“Throughout the course of three many years at IMG Fashions, Ivan fairly actually modified the form and face of the modeling business from inside. His relentless pursuit for range and inclusion challenged trend’s gatekeepers and created family names whose omnipresence has impressed generations,” Shapiro associated within the e-mail.

Shapiro stated that he actually sat beside Bart at a desk with the previous administration staff at Victoria’s Secret whereas he politely argued that they needed to change their annual runway tv particular and diversify their fashions by way of measurement, age, race and background.

Shapiro famous that Bart was an early adopter of social media and an advocate for the facility it gave fashions to be heard, not simply seen. “He knew innately {that a} image was price a thousand phrases, and the pictures he helped create turned a crucial catalyst for social change,” he stated.

“Being in Ivan’s world was awe-inspiring,” stated Shapiro. “Attending trend reveals and occasions with him in Milan, Paris, Miami, Lisbon, London and New York and simply tailing him, being at his aspect, witnessing him work the room, was exhilarating,” stated Shapiro.

Bart stepped down from IMG Fashions final March and have become a senior advisor on the company. Throughout his tenure, the company signed fashions resembling Ashley Graham and different plus-size fashions, together with Hari Nef, Maye Musk and Ella Emhoff. He additionally headed up IMG’s world enterprise occasions. IMG’s trend occasions group owns, operates and/or commercially represents trend properties resembling New York Style Week: The Exhibits.

Bart obtained the Social Impression Award at FIT’s Annual Awards Gala in 2018, and stated throughout his acceptance speech that he was raised by a single mom and had an aunt who each influenced and formed who he turned, and maybe even impressed him to handle ladies’s careers. He was introduced the award by IMG mannequin and actress Carolyn Murphy, who stated that it has all the time been Bart’s private mission to interrupt the social modes, push boundaries and be extra inclusive.

Bart identified {that a} present Lauder marketing campaign that featured Joan Smalls, Carolyn Murphy, Fei Fei Solar and Hilary Rhoda not solely signified inclusivity but in addition despatched a robust message “that no girl is excluded from luxurious merchandise and girls of shade have actual spending energy.”

“What we see in promoting and the runway should replicate who all of us are,” stated Bart. He stated he had advocated for plus-size fashions resembling Candice Huffine, Ashley Graham, Valuable Lee and Zach Miko to get work. “Our staff labored collectively to push these proficient fashions into the mainstream and it’s working,” he stated.

Bart is survived by his husband, Grant Greenberg, his household, many pals and the IMG household, stated Shapiro.

This story is in growth.