Western Tooling Design On Ultrasuede

"They're part of my design process!" Ewan McGregor retorts as Halston in Netflix's latest miniseries on the rise–and fall—of the American fashion designer. In the scene, Halston is being chastised for his careless spending, and someone has suggested he give up his orchid habit. Throughout the show, we see his atelier, workspace, and townhouse teeming with the tropical flower—a sign of the man's staunch dedication to living in luxury.

Like his beloved orchids, Halston's work was sumptuously minimal. His disco-goddess gowns rarely featured anything they didn't need; a no-frills aesthetic allowed shapes (of the clothes but also the women beneath) to command attention. The adornment was little, but there was character in Halston's swirling batik treatments or the aquatic glisten of an uncolored sequin paillette.

Through a series of licensing deals and his career-long devotion to wearability, the high-flying Halston lifestyle became something many American women could experience; the look was as discerning as it was welcoming. All one needed was a dab of Halston fragrance on her neck, an Ultrasuede shirtdress, and an in at Studio 54.

Below, we round up some pieces to take us all back to the glamorous heyday of Halston—shop vintage and modern Halston, Elsa Peretti wares, and don't forget the orchids.

Vintage Halston

"I really tried to find a way to summarize what was a novel of a fashion show into a little poem," says Jeriana San Juan, the costume designer tasked with distilling Halston's Ultrasuede-upholstered life into just five episodes. As the show recounts the highs and lows of the Iowa-born, Indiana-raised designer's life, we dive into 1961. The day is January 20, and JFK has been sworn in as president with his behatted wife, Jackie, by his side. She is, of course, wearing a pillbox hat designed by Halston back when he was a milliner at Bergdorf Goodman.

The show powers through that decade and into the next—the era Halston helped to define. Getting it right was crucial. "I really, full-on, started to consume everything I possibly could to be well-researched and to understand his world," San Juan says. "I used the archives at Vogue and at Condé Nast and went through looking for the earliest mentions of Halston; everything from editorials to reviews of his collections to features on some of his muses."

San Juan was also privileged enough to meet some of the gaggle of artful characters Halston surrounded himself with—those muses who helped to build the foundation for his empire. She met with Chris Royer (one of the Halstonettes, along with Pat Cleveland, Alva Chinn, Karen Bjornson, Liza Minnelli, and Elsa Peretti) who was a house model for Halston; consulted Naeem Khan, who had been his assistant once upon a time; and also Gino Balsamo, who made clothes for the Halston label and the man himself. Along the way, San Juan collected and handled Halston originals ("They look fairly simple to the eye, but they're really not simplistic. They're quite complex"), and understood the way Mr. Halston himself dressed. Through Balsamo, she was able to recreate a pair of sailor pants without a side seam, worn by Halston—often with a black turtleneck and his omnipresent pair of sunglasses.

In the show, which unfolds like a never-ending fashion parade, we see a lot of Halston looks—some, exact replicas of what once was; others, faithful reimaginings of originals made by San Juan, and '70s-era vintage. "I always do a few [identical pieces] so that people who knew the subject well would be able to clock those things and feel the authenticity," she says, "but then I also jazzed and riffed on ideas."

For the fashion-history-making Battle of Versailles, San Juan explains how she infused her designs with a cinematic touch. "I really did try to emulate some of Halston's silhouettes that he was showing at Versailles, but I did take a creative license on color, some fabrications, and I also added capes to a bunch of dresses," she says. (San Juan's sketches from the scene are pictured above.) "I knew we wanted to see fabric consume the stage. I wanted to have an opportunity for the camera to capture fabric moving closer to the face, which I think really paid off and created elegance and grace and movement."

The easiest way to costume a '70s-era show? Vintage, of course. San Juan scoured the internet daily for vintage Halston and Halston-era pieces to dress the entire cast, especially in the models' off-duty looks. "I've never been on set as much and as often as I was on Halston because I was also dressing every mannequin in the background!" she says. She trawled the vintage troves on 1stDibs and at vintage shows, finding a pair of suede shorts that were just made for Dilone (who plays Pat Cleveland) and a very rare Elsa Peretti belt at the annual Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show.

Present-Day Halston

In January of 2020, Halston announced Robert Rodriguez as its new creative director. One collection in, Rodriguez and his team were made aware of Netflix's forthcoming miniseries directed by Daniel Minahan, and it was at once decided that a celebratory collection was in order.

"They sent me a deck of vintage styles from Halston that they were featuring in the series," says Rodriguez. "Jeriana San Juan showed me what Elsa Peretti was wearing and what Liza Minelli was wearing. So we picked about 10 different looks that were featured, and I reinterpreted those looks for the modern-day."

Next month, at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, the Halston x Netflix collection will drop. Per Rodriguez, it features batik textiles, pleated and shimmering fabrics, and a caftan with a bodysuit underneath. One of the dresses, a floaty red chiffon gown, is pictured above.

"It was a very special project because he was always very influential to me," Rodriguez says of Halston. "He was a tremendous inspiration throughout my career, and it was a treat—a thrill—just to carry forward his legacy through Netflix and capture the moment." As we wait for the collection to arrive, browse a few Halston pieces that embrace the disco-essence of their predecessors, below.

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Halston Cameron draped gown

$495

HALSTON Shop Now

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Halston Mariel back drape gown

$545

HALSTON Shop Now

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All About Ultrasuede

It's reported that Halston first saw Ultrasuede on Issey Miyake in Paris in 1971. The artificial fabric, woven from supple microfibers evoking suede, became Halson's signature. In the fall of 1972, Halston would make waves with his "model number 704" dress cut in the novel textile, after which the garment flew off shelves. A straight-cut shirtwaist dress with set-in sleeves and a pointy, oversized collar that splayed out across the collarbone, the dress epitomized the easy elegance Halston had been so devoted to. With a subtle borrowed-from-the-menswear-department allure, the piece represented a kind of freedom—most particularly where the care of the garment was concerned. Halton's Ultrasuede was not only water-resistant but machine-washable, too. The 704-clad woman could pack the dress onto her carry-on, trot the globe, wash, hang dry, and repeat. In December of 1972, Vogue photographed Halston amongst his Halstonettes, declaring. "A Great Year for Halston." That, it was indeed.

1970s Halston Tan Sand ultrasuede sleeveless vintage '70s shirt dress

Gathering Vintage 1970s Halston Kelly green ultrasuede zip-front dress

Female Hysteria 1970s Halston ultrasuede dress

The Silkies vintage 1970s Halston microsuede orange coat dress

Halston 1970s orange pink ultrasuede button-up coat dress

Aardvark Vintage Goods vintage 1970s green Halston ultrasuede shirt dress

1970s Halston ultrasuede khaki brown double-breasted vintage spy trench jacket

By night at Studio 54? The smolder, saturation, and wattage were all turned up for dance-floor dazzle. "He loved a strong, black smokey eye," recalls Linter, who gave Halston muse Elsa Peretti just that for a spread in Vogue's February 1975 issue lensed by Deborah Turbeville at Halston's home. And even with smoked-out lids, "the cheeks could still be pink, the lips could still be red," Linter says, noting the designer's proclivity for vividly draped cheekbones and a classic crimson lip. After all, by the late '70s, the painterly, more-is-more "evening face" of fellow Studio 54 regular and makeup pioneer Way Bandy was out in full force.

But anywhere, anytime, a spritz of Halston's eponymous fragrance—a spicy floral bouquet with its notes of marigold, jasmine, and mossy Chypre, and housed in that unmistakable bottle designed by Peretti—was the ultimate finishing touch. As writer Carina Chocano once put it, "Halston's influence on American fashion goes beyond his designs—he took an era, reupholstered it in Ultrasuede, dabbed 'Halston' on its pulse points and made it his own." —Lauren Valenti

Tom Ford Eye Quad in Disco Dust

Byredo Eyeshadow 5 Colors

Victoria Beckham Lid Lustre in Onyx

Charlotte Tilbury Rock 'N' Kohl Eyeliner

Pat McGrath Labs The Legendary LA Pearl Kit

Tom Ford Lip Color in Spanish Pink

Hermès Rouge Hermès Poppy Lip Shine

By Terry Paris Crayon Levres Terrybly

Kjaer Weis Lip Gloss in Courage

Guerlain Rouge G Refillable Lipstick

Armani Beauty Luminous Silk Perfect Glow Foundation

Gucci Poudre De Beauté Mat Naturel

Charlotte Tilbury Cheek To Chic Blush

Sisley-Paris Phyto-Blush Eclat Compact

CODE8 Highlight HD Palette

Halston Perfume

Western Tooling Design On Ultrasuede

Source: https://www.vogue.com/article/get-the-halston-look

Posted by: mcdonoughonink1956.blogspot.com

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