![]() ![]() These women wore Halston's clothes, but he never ingratiated himself with them, nor did they invite him to events. Very often, designers accompanied these society ladies to parties and events, if their husbands didn't. You ingratiated yourself with the grand society dames. The whole idea back then was that you were coveting society. There were Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta, but they worked in service of society. Halston was the first to stand in elevation and create an ethos where the name mattered. I found the group pretty boring, but they were there for insulation more than anything else, simply because designers didn’t have superstar status in the sixties and seventies. Halston at Studio 54 with Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Jack Haley Jr., and Andy Warhol. If you were young, gay, and cute, you were summoned. I only got to meet Halston a handful of times, both at Studio 54 and in his home, once or twice. But what stands out about Halston, when you look at him and the entourage he traveled with, is that the entourage was a safety net. ![]() Calvin Klein never said anywhere in public that he was gay. Halston never said anywhere in public that he was gay. HR: There was a whole series of gay designers working in that particular period of time, but no one was openly gay. This man could cut a bolt of fabric with one slit or one seam the dresses didn't have hooks or zippers. If anything, I think the clothes were deceptive. Here came Halston with clothes that just seemed to flow. ![]() At the time, fashion was big, flamboyant, and stiff. You’ve got to place Halston in context with the other designers of the era. My grandmother was a dressmaker, so I did care about clothes, and I knew about Seventh Avenue. But the interesting thing about Halston was the clarity of design. I was around ten, so I certainly wasn't paying attention to who did Jackie’s pillbox hat. Nationally, everybody became first aware of Halston at the Kennedy inauguration. Whether you were straight or gay, it didn’t matter. It was a period where New York was extremely hedonistic. This was right after Woodstock-all free love and sexual revolution. The seventies were an odd time in the sense that New York was dirty and dangerous, yet there was an incredible energy. However, I was a young gay guy, and I was out everywhere in New York. Hal Rubenstein: Halston started working in the late sixties and took off in the seventies. Rubenstein spoke with Esquire about Halston's inimitable talent, his tragic downfall, and how he changed the face of fashion forever.Įsquire: When did you first become aware of Halston, and what were your impressions of his designs? Hal Rubenstein, a founding editor of InStyle and the author of 100 Unforgettable Dresses, rubbed elbows with Halston during the Studio 54 days. Halston's troubled personal life would contribute to his eventual professional downfall, leading him to a much-maligned collaboration with JCPenney, and to a fatal business deal in which he sold off his most valuable asset: his name. Underscoring Halston's achievements was his hard-partying lifestyle at New York's storied Studio 54, where a combination of drugs, sex, and false friends left him increasingly volatile. Opening in Bergdorf Goodman's hat shop in 1961, the series follows Halston through formative professional experiences like the release of his breakthrough Ultrasuede shirtdress, the sensation he caused at the 1973 Battles of Versailles, and the expansion of his bespoke business into a multimillion dollar retail empire. Halston has come back into the spotlight on the occasion of Netflix's Halston, a Ryan Murphy series tracing the pioneering designer's dizzying rise and tragic fall. Life was never the same again for Halston, who became America's first superstar designer, and whose name would become synonymous with the slinky, sensual fashion of the disco era. In 1961, up-and-coming milliner Halston (who would later become known mononymously) exploded onto the national stage when Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wore one of his designs to her husband's presidential inauguration: a powder blue pillbox hat. All it took to change Roy Halston Frowick's life was one extraordinary hat.
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