The Genius of Halston

BY: Andy Shoulders

Few names swept through fashion in the 1970s like Halston. With a knack for getting his looks onto the right celebrities, the Halston brand became synonymous with celebrity culture through marketing genius and deceptive simplicity.

Born Roy Halston Flowick in Des Moines, Iowa, Halston had an early dream of “dressing everybody in America.” He found early success after the Chicago Daily News ran a story on his fashionable hats, and within a couple years, he became head milliner for Bergdorf Goodman. His first taste of widespread fame came when Jacqueline Kennedy wore one of his pillbox hat designs to her husband’s presidential inauguration in 1961.

Halston soon moved into womenswear, with Newsweek dubbing him “the premier fashion designer of all America.” By 1968, he had his own boutique on New York’s famed Madison Avenue, and he launched his first ready-to-wear line, Halston Limited, the following year. He soon became known for changing the women’s fitted silhouette by letting the natural flow of the fabric create its own polished shape (this is what “cutting on the bias” means) rather than show a woman’s body through the curve of the clothing.

Although his designs were simple and minimalist, his fabric choices were anything but. Silks, chiffons, velvets, and suedes all became hallmark Halston fabrics, and the Hollywood fashion elite of the time such as Bianca Jagger and Liza Minnelli (both of whom became close friends of the designer) could often be seen wearing Halston’s designs. He soon developed his famous Ultrasuede shirtdress in the early 1970s, and his career thus hit the stratosphere throughout the decade. He was soon spotted with his celebrity friends at of-the-time hot spots like Studio 54, eventually becoming as famous as the women he dressed. He even traveled with his own group of models known as “Halstonettes.”

However, as is the case with many famous names in the Hollywood/fashion/party scene, the bigger the rise, the harder the fall. Halston became heavily involved in drugs (namely cocaine, which would cause intense temper flares), and he had a damaging relationship with Venezuelan artist Victor Hugo, a lover who several at the time claim started as a street hustler. The icing on the cake was a poorly thought out deal with JC Penney to design a ready-to-wear collection, which caused his fashion snob base to turn their backs on him.

Although there’s little surprising or mysterious about a rising star who loses his/her way due to Hollywood excess, bad judgment, and shady corporate deal-making, what set Halston apart was his ability to make clothes that literally defined an era. One simply cannot talk about 1970s fashion without mentioning Halston’s name. He made women feel beautiful without being fussy by letting the gorgeous fabrics speak for themselves. There wasn’t a night at Studio 54 without someone wearing his creations, which is quite fitting considering Liza Minnelli once famously noted that “his clothes danced with you.”