Halston

Roy Halston, arguably the most successful single name in fashion, started out as a milliner, creating customized hats including Jackie Kennedy’s pill box. Director Federic Tcheng spends little time on his Iowa background, choosing to begin with the new morality movement in the mid 1960s when Halston met such friends as director Joel Schumacher on their trips to Fire Island on off days from Bergdorf’s where Andy Warhol was designing the window displays. Criticized for knowing more about how to select cloth than design garments, Halston would create an empire by merging Hollywood elegance with functional ease around such models and actresses as Marisa Berenson and Liza Minnelli – including perfume in sculpted bottles, cosmetics, shoes, bags and sheets just so long as he was personally involved in their design. He outfitted athletes for the 1976 Olympics and gave lavish birthday parties at Studio 54 for people like Bianca Jagger, but as pressures increased he became eccentric and hard to work for. Eventually his name was bought by Playtex, his life’s work sold off for pennies on the dollar, and he went into seclusion. Through it all, drugs and JC Penney shut down his one man show! Interviews with former employees, family and the Halston-ette models offer an overview to his life but not much insight into his motivations.

[NR]