Halston was always there, surrounded by “Halstonettes”, rent boys and bowls of cocaine, looking so haughty in his dark glasses that even Warhol was allegedly intimidated. We’ve all heard of Studio 54, club of clubs, favourite of Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, Angelica Huston, Calvin Klein and Bianca Jagger, who you may have heard once rode in on a white horse. McGregor’s performance is cleverly understated, and draws out the designer’s loyalties and sensitivities as much as his predilections for rent boys and cocaine. In the Netflix drama, he is played by Ewan McGregor - quite convincingly, once you stop expecting Francis Begbie to burst into the room and glass everyone.
Charismatic and kind yet also cruel and standoffish, Halston died in 1990, aged 57. He started out making hats (his first notable fan was Jackie Kennedy) before moving into ready to wear, couture, perfume and, in 1972, a collaboration with JC Penney which would eventually prove the label’s downfall, and see him lose the rights to his own name. Roy Halston Frowick has been lauded as “America’s greatest fashion designer”, an accolade he would surely never have achieved had he named his label Roy.
But how much of what we are seeing on TV is true and is the halterneck back? Here is the low-down. Swathed in controversy, honoured many times in his career, the designer is currently receiving the most golden honour of all - his own Netflix docudrama. “You’re only as good as the people you dress,” said Halston, who clothed Jackie O, Liza Minelli, Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall and Gene Tierney. New West End Company BRANDPOST | PAID CONTENT.