Halston, Fashion, and Fashionable People

by Gillion Carrara

“Fashion starts with fashionable people.“

— Roy Halston Frowick, 1932-1990

Born Roy Halston Frowick in Des Moines, Iowa, the son of a Norwegian-American accountant and his wife, Halston emerged as a distinctly American designer who dominated the 1970s and early 80s, well regarded for style and simplicity, charismatic in his social life, and gifted with inimitable personal charm and polished manners. The exceptional six-foot-two designer profoundly influenced the nature of luxury fashion with his concept of fashion as essential form.

A Milliner in Chicago

During the early 1950s, Halston attended adult education classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to improve his fashion illustrations, as he realized millinery sketches for his freelance clientèle. He never formally studied clothing design and construction. No doubt his grandmother inspired his curiosity about hats, with her large collection, to which he often returned.

Eventually, his ‘gentleman friend’ André Basil arranged an area for him in his hair salon at the Ambassador West Hotel, and later at 900 North Michigan Avenue, providing additional glamor for local and visiting celebrity clients, including Carol Channing and others. Iowa-born actress Fran Allison, of the popular children’s television program Kukla, Fran & Ollie,

was a client, along with society’s Mrs. Philip Wrigley, Mrs. Brooks McCormick, and Peg Zwecker, fashion columnist at the Chicago Daily News. Although she called him “Fro,” legend has it that Peg coined the single name that came to personify him: Halston. It was during his midwest endeavors that he began thinking about three dimensions and their sculptural possibilities.

A Milliner and Fashion Designer in New York

Milliner Lily Daché encouraged Halston to move to New York in 1957. Accompanied by Basil, he found exposure and stimuli, responding to the needs of the high-end market for Daché and then in Bergdorf Goodman’s exclusive millinery salon. His original wraps, turbans and wide-brimmed straw hats were sought after by clientèle and admired in the press. At the request of Mrs. John F. Kennedy, already a significant fashion influence, he created her now iconic pillbox hat for the presidential inauguration, catapulting him to a stellar level of fame. Typically her hair was coiffed in the fashionable bouffant of the day, although its shape challenged the positioning of her hat, as well as the requirement that her facial appearance be in full view.

What followed was unprecedented: crediting a designer at the high-fashion department store with his own labeled collection. Martha Graham, Barbra Streisand, Diana Vreeland, Babe Paley, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Ford were among the women who were willing to converse at length with him about comfortable clothes in soft, luxurious fabrics. What his fashion creations promised was personal style and elegant nonchalance.

New York Social Life

In New York City, Halston found himself in the midst of the political, social turbulence and creative scene of the nineteen-sixties, following years of life’s status quo. He was at the nexus of celebrities, designers, and models who followed him across the disco dance floors of Manhattan—mainly Studio 54, known for its hedonism and the use of recreational drugs. Typically he dressed in black tuxedo and red socks for most nights out.

His social milieu attracted models who best illustrated his fluid fashion architecture, and were captured on paper by the most defining of contemporary artists, Joe Eula, in washes of color and suggested movement. His circle included the emerging celebrities Liza Minnelli, Marisa Berenson, Loulou de la Falaise, and Steve Rubell; artists Andy Warhol and Victor Hugo; designers Giorgio Sant’Angelo, Fernando Sanchez, and Steven Burrows; and personal assistant Pat Ast.

Celebrity models Pat Cleveland, Elsa Peretti, and Angelica Huston were referred to as the “Halstonettes.” This new seventies society also included Elizabeth Taylor, Mick and Bianca Jagger, Truman Capote, Jack Nicholson, Diana Ross, Valentino, Karl Lagerfeld, and Yves St. Laurent.

Global awareness was as paramount to the designer as was contemporary art, fashion, history, ethnic dress, and the stage—all of which informed his collections.

Combining the synthesis of the arts in the sixties and his understanding of contemporary art, his ventures were wide and varied, including body-sculpted jewelry, fragrance bottles in collaboration with jewelry designer Elsa Peretti, flamboyant flower prints developed with Andy Warhol, fabrics of tie-dye washes, a Jackson Pollack-style splash print, and footwear with Herbert and Beth Levine. With Victor Hugo he created theatrical narrations in the store’s vitrines, posing mannequins in scenes of current events.

Representing Innovative Evolution

Halston’s faultless problem-solving yielded a combination of art and commerce. He was among the first to develop a name-branding strategy for luxury products. He branded his tall, wholesome Midwestern good looks and soft-spoken voice, articulating his vision across a broad range of categories: perfume, twin-set cashmere knits, oversized plaids, tie-dyes by

Organza dress with cascade fan-tail ruffles, 1981. Drawing by Leah Eash. Used with permission.

hand, matte jerseys, double-faced cashmere, transparent chiffons, iridescent taffeta, and flowing rayon.

He was fascinated by the fluid, velvetlike Acquasuede, later renamed Ultrasuede, a Japanese nonwoven, durable and washable suede-like material that he popularized. Aware of his interest in the inventive, designer Issey Miyake introduced the novel material to him. Halston designed an Ultrasuede belted shirtwaist dress, based on a man’s tailored shirt, and produced it in sensual colors. He initiated beige as the color of fashion. Ivory, red, and black were his mainstays, as were purple and blue; green and burgundy his preferred shades.

He configured variations of uncluttered wrap, knot, spiral seam, cling, twist, loop, asymmetrical necklines, and layers that would come alive as the wearer gestured, slid through the door of a high-rise building, sat in first class on a jet airplane, or demurely posed on a barstool.

Incorporating luxury fabrics that are easy to pack for travel in the new jet-set world, he engineered everything from pajamas to pantsuits, knits, sportswear, swimwear, accessories, and evening wear. His readyto-wear was based on classicism and, in keeping with what was modern, gave his couture a new direction. Traditional cuts, clean silhouettes, and minimal construction elements now typified the modern luxury of very well-constructed garments. He intuitively understood simplicity and sensibility, which in his regard constituted the energy of a woman who personified unquestionable beauty.

His collections comprised a series of interchangeable, all-season separates: closefitting cashmere sweater sets that led to floor-length ensembles, caftans, halter evening dresses, sarongs, wrap coats, turtleneck sweaters, coats, and capes.

Grace Mirabella of Vogue magazine pronounced, “Halston’s proportions were perfect. His clothes followed the shape of a woman’s body without being tight; they held the body while still retaining a certain languor.” He was indeed an artist-designer.

His was an American success story with perfect timing. In the initial years of his career, people wore his affordable fashions on the streets with casual ease and comfort. His loose-fitting attire gracefully flowed around bodies and did not require a perfect body type. In considering the fast-paced lifestyle of his clients, he evoked modernity and glamor.

Halston constructed garments so that ease of dress, casual presence, and undress eliminated obstacles. Closures were marginal and functional. Wrap tying enabled a stretch tension, graceful and compact at the torso, knotted skillfully as a functioning adornment. Folding organza in layers created

Bias, spira-cut tube dress 1975. Drawing by Leah Eash. Used with permission. Bias, spiral cut, 1975. The pattern illustrates the continued folding along each line, wrong sides together, creating a tube, which is sewn together with a singular seam. Drawing by Leah Eash. Used with permission.

cantilevered steps. Shoulder-draped wool realized the body as a geometric form in movement.

The late costume historian Richard Martin writes in Halston: Absolute Modernism, “If dressing is reduced to a flick of the wrist, then dress becomes ineffably modern as well.”

Fascinated with the possibilities of geometry realized fluidly, Halston tested garment shapes with squares of brittle folded paper scraps throughout the workroom. The result was a reductive approach to design. He would drape materials on a house model, experimenting efficiently with seams barely visible to the body in motion. Therefore his intention was straightforward—to use as few construction details or patterns as possible.

One-seam top with center wrap and tie. Photo courtesy of School of the Art Institute of Chicago Fashion Resource Center (93.11.01. (01), 1970). The Fashion Resource Center maintains a unique hands-on collection of late twentieth and twenty-first century designer garments and accessories representative of extreme innovation. Its singular nature is defined not only by the visitor’s ability to handle the apparel, but also by the extensive visual, print, and fabric reference collection that support and illuminate the garments and the study of the attire. These elements combine to provide students and guests with a creative and educational environment in which to explore the most progressive achievements in the world of dress and fashion.

Disappointed with business negotiations and ill, Halston moved to Santa Rosa, California, to be closer to family members. He died surrounded by family in the Pacific Presbyterian Hospital, San Francisco, on March 27, 1990.

For the exhibition, Halston: Absolute Modernism in 1991 at the Fashion Institue of Technology (FIT), each of his crowd was entrusted to edit or adjust the collection before the exhibition opened to the public. Curators Richard Martin and Harold Koda selected garments informed by elegant, two-dimensional simplicity, describing his body of work as “an analytical study of a designer of essential form.” They summarized his patterns as canvases that began his development.

Legacy When undergrad, post-bacc, and graduate students of the Department of Fashion Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) examine donations of Halston pieces at the SAIC Fashion Resource Center, they invariably are attracted to publications on the topic, along with the simple fluidity of a one-seam top with center wrap and tie by the designer. Visitors examine the material of the Ultrasuede shirtwaist dress, curious about this early innovative modern material.

These students are aware of Halson’s American ingenuity and understand his evolution beyond his predecessors, including Claire McCardell and Bonnie Cashin. He agreed with their adeptness of rigorous and developing styles, which he also realized to be democratic and authoritative. In the SAIC Fashion Resource Center’s hands-on, non-circulating collection, an entire new generation of admirers values his objectives and practices as they explore examples of his designs and the many publications that reflect on his undeniable impact on modern fashion.

Ultrasuede shirtwaist dress and belt. Photo courtesy of School of the Art Institute of Chicago Fashion Resource Center (dress, 96.12.01. (a) (02); belt, 96.12 02.(b) (02), 1972.)

Halston—A Chronology 1932

Born Roy Halston Frowick in Des Moines, Iowa, and grew up in Evansville, Indiana, the second oldest of four siblings—Robert, Donald and Sue. His father, James, was an accountant, his mother, Hallie, a housewife. Hires distinguished couture and ready-to-wear designer Charles James as “technical consultant.” Establishes Halston International.

1971

Receives third Coty Award, titled a “Winnie.” First appearance of Acquasuede, renamed Ultrasuede, made in a raincoat.

1934

Awarded the “Healthiest City Boy” at the Iowa State Fair. As an adolescent, worked at International Harvester.

1972

1952

Attends Indiana University. Moves to Chicago, studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in an adult education fashion illustration class; window dresser, Carson Pirie Scott & Company, Chicago.

1953

André Basil arranges a display area for Halston’s millinery designs in his Ambassador Hotel hair salon. Forms partnership for Halston Originals Ready-to-Wear showroom at 550 Seventh Avenue. Shows first Ultrasuede shirtwaist dress. By 1973, 60,000 had been sold. Expands couture operations in Halston boutique at 813 Madison Avenue—readyto-wear ground floor, off-the-rack, expensive fashions on the second floor, and custom made on the top floor. Ready-to-wear lines are sold to better stores around the country. Receives fourth Coty Award. Featured in Newsweek magazine.

1957

Relocates to 900 North Michigan Avenue, along with the André Basil hair salon. 1958 Moves to New York City, eventually to a townhouse at 101 East Sixty-third Street, designed by architect Paul Rudolph; designer and manager of Lily Daché Millinery, at East Fifty-sixth Street near Park Avenue, until 1959. 1959-1968 First recognized designer in millinery salon at Bergdorf Goodman, responsible for two collections annually to include 50 new styles. 1960

Halston featured on the cover of 1973 Newsweek, August 21, 1972. Halston Limited renamed Halston Enterprises. With other American designers, participates in a French-American fashion show, including music and dance at the Palace of Versailles, promoted as Grand Divertissment à Versailles. Norton Simon, Inc. purchases Halston Originals, trademarks and exclusive design services, creating a new company named Halston Enterprises. Halston will eventually change hands six times. 1974 Receives Hall of Fame Award and fifth Coty Award. First appearance of single-seam dress. The “skimp” is featured in Women’s Wear Daily. 1975 Launches Halston fragrance in a bottle designed by Elsa Peretti.

Creates First Lady Jackie Kennedy’s inauguration pillbox hat.

1962

Receives first Coty Award.

1962-1973

Halston Limited in production.

1966

Opens clothing boutique at Bergdorf Goodman and shares label. Presents first Halston collection.

1976

Launches menswear collection and two Halston fragrances for men. Opens first store outside New York, on Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Fashion show benefit at the Art Institute of Chicago. Introduces wrap bathing suit called the “Savage.” Receives Fragrance of the Year Award. Designs uniforms for Girl Scout troop leaders, Braniff Airlines flight attendants, and athletes at the 1976 Olympics and Pan American games.

1977

1968

Establishes house of couture and ready-to-wear labeled Halston Ltd. Opens first fashion showroom at 33 East Sixty-eighth Street at Madison Avenue. Introduces body stockings. Designs uniforms for Braniff International Airlines. Receives Tony Award for costumes designed for Liza Minnelli.

1978

Occupies 21st floor of Olympic Towers, at Fifty-first Street and Fifth Avenue, to accommodate couture operation and administrative offices. Expands Sixty-eighth Street boutique

1979

Shows first Halston Sportswear collection. Receives special recognition by Coty American Fashion Critics Award Nominating Committee.

1982

Signs agreement with J.C. Penney to create Halston III, a low-priced collection for the retail market and catalogue. Although disappointed that he has lost the rights of design for his label, his intention is to design for the wider public.

1983

Halston III line on sale at J.C. Penney. Esmark Inc. acquires Halston Enterprises.

1984

Beatrice Foods acquires Esmark, making Halston a division of International Playtex, Inc. Halston signs letter of intent to reclaim ownership. Designs costumes for the Martha Graham Dance Company. Halston stops designing professionally. Olympic Tower offices close.

1986

Sweater and ‘the skimp’ dress, cashmere, 1974. Drawing by Leah Eash. Used with permission.

Revlon Group purchases Halston Enterprises and fragrances. As of date, Halston and subsidiaries have been designed, styled, and managed by seven designers, a creative director, a celebrity, a movie producer, and members of a board. Ben Malka joins Halston as chairman and chief executive.

2013

Halston/Borghese cosmetics archives is maintained by Lipsomb University merchandising department, Nashville, Tennessee, donated by president and CEO of the Borghese cosmetics company, Georgette Mosbacher. The collection includes gowns and evening wear ensembles, sketches, patterns, and photographs.

Sources Bluttal, Steven. Halston. London: Phaidon, 2001. Gross, Elaine and Fred Rottman. Halston: An American Original. New York: Harper Collins, 1999. Martin, Richard. “American Ingenuity: Sportswear, 1930s–1970s.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Also http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/amsp/ hd_amsp.htm (October 2004). Martin Richard and Harold Koda. “Some Modernist Principles in Presenting Halston: Absolute Modernism.” Textile & Text, Volume 14, number 1. New York: Fashion Institute of Technology, 1988.

1988

Tests positive for the AIDS virus.

1989

Moves to California.

1990

Dies of complications from the AIDS virus in Pacific Presbyterian Hospital, San Francisco, March 27. Memorial service, Lincoln Center, New York. Halston Enterprises, Inc. suspends production.

1991

Special tribute to Halston by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Retrospective exhibition Halston: Absolute Modernism at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. Paper patterns were exhibited by the directors as contemporary, minimalist art.

1992

Revlon sells Halston and Borghese trademarks.

1993

A selection of Halston archives that include patterns and sketches and study room, available to students, scholars, and educators, donated to the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, by Halston Borghese, Inc. About the Author Gillion Carrara is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Art History, Theory & Criticism at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. She teaches topics on contemporary and avant-garde dress and fashion. She is also the Director of the Fashion Resource Center, which maintains a unique hands-on collection of late twentieth and twenty-first century designer garments and accessories representative of extreme innovation. Its singular nature is defined not only by the visitor’s ability to handle the apparel, but also by the extensive visual, print, and fabric reference collection that support and illuminate the garments and the study of the attire. These elements combine to provide students and guests with a creative and educational environment in which to explore the most progressive achievements in the world of dress and fashion.

About the Illustrator Leah Eash, fashion model turned fashion illustrator, began her career in Chicago after receiving her BA from Olivet Nazarene University. Eash now resides and works out of northwest Montana, where her work consists of commission pieces for fashion blogs and local boutiques, as well as limited edition prints available through her website www.leaheash.com.