Halston
Halston (1932-1990) was a hugely famous American designer known for setting trends, who transformed the fashion industry in numerous ways.
Born Roy Halston Frowick in Des Moines, Iowa, Halston found initial success in hats, operating a millinery shop in Chicago before moving to New York City. While working for Bergdorf Goodman, he designed a pillbox hat for Jacqueline Kennedy for her husband John F. Kennedy’s 1961 presidential inauguration. The clean, modern design contrasted with the contemporary fashion scene and the hat became instantly popular and iconic.
In the 1960s Halston expanded into couture and ready-to-wear womenswear, creating understated yet elegant garments, sometimes from a single piece of luxurious fabric that draped fluidly around the body and needed no decoration. His Ultrasuede dresses and suits were machine washable and valuable to a new class of professional women, and he helped pioneer the idea of athleisure by designing clothes that allowed women to feel relaxed, free, and powerful. This focus on minimalism and willingness to break the old rules of fashion made him a quintessential designer of the groovy 1970s.
Driven by a desire to “dress all of America,” Halston had a democratizing influence on the fashion industry. He was one of the first major fashion designers to hire models of different races for his runways and ads, and he designed uniforms not just for the U.S. Olympics team but for Girl Scouts and flight attendants. In business, too, he was ahead of the curve, partnering in the early 1980s with the department store JCPenney to release an affordable fashion line. Unfortunately, while other designers soon began to profitably follow his lead in selling fashions at multiple price points, this move hurt Halston, as higher-end establishments like Bergdorf Goodman were appalled and stopped selling his clothes.
Halston’s professional success dwindled in the 1980s. This was due in part to the excesses of his personal life; while his famous parties and lavish lifestyle helped maintain his celebrity, they (and Halston’s substantial drug use) contributed to excessive spending and erratic behavior. Corporate deals played another factor, as Halston made a great deal of money by licensing his name but also lost control over it. Halston died in 1990 of lung cancer complicated by HIV.
To learn more about Halston, check out the biography Halston: An American Original or the DVD Halston at Haggerty Library.
