halston and his models in black bathing suits

ultrasuede: in search of halston is the film about roy halston featuring the overly excited adolescent director, whitney sudler-smith, and his rent-a-car trans am. bit obnoxious but worth the trouble if you can get past him, and no he doesn’t look like halston, nor burt reynolds, he looks more like a whitney.

halston with betsy theodoracopoulos

halston’s dog

from hat designer of the ‘ladies at bergdorf’ to a global style icon, halston was perhaps the first luxury house to spread its legs… just a bit too wide. he was the face of studio 54, always surrounded by his models, and sometimes his boy toy, victor hugo. he brought a sense of american ease to fashion that not many europeans could appreciate at the time as much yves saint laurent himself. his muted color palette was supreme, he did well. but then he designed uniforms for avis rent-a-car, airline interiors, carpets, one of the most successful fragrance ranges and finally its own demise. all of them expertly designed. it wasn’t the first time a creative soul was tempted with money and a promise to rule the world, only to be dumped from his own company by a bunch of paper pushers. if i recall correctly steve jobs, YSL and many more secured a similar fate. lesson learned… by dd