HALSTON AND THE UNDOING OF AMERICAN COUTURE

The designer represents what could be the last of an unsung American tradition.

The designer at the end of his Spring 1978 ready-to-wear fashion show. Photo: Fairchild Archive/Penske Media.

Firstly, I must acknowledge to regular readers of this newsletter that, yes, this is my second Halston-related post in a row. But Halston exists in a special strata in my mind, one worth unspooling yet again here. The uncompromising nature of everything he did has affected me enormously, and it doesn’t take much for me to get lost in thought about his life and career.

There is so much I could say, but this will not be a summation of his beginnings or much-discussed fall from grace. Many other books, articles and documentaries have already seen to that. I want to talk about what Halston represents beyond that archetypal drama. It’s easy to get stuck on the Liza Minnelli of it all, the Studio 54 stories, the sunglasses and black turtlenecks. Yet Halston was significant not for his persona, but for his ability to transmute the rigor of The Great Designers who preceded him and make work that advanced their construction methodologies with his own ingenious techniques – all in pursuit of advancing a uniquely American style. There was once a coterie of other American designers who aspired to this standard: Valentina Schlee, Charles James, Jessie Franklin Turner, Elizabeth Hawes. Halston may have been the very last in their noble line.