Incase You Missed It: Halston on Netflix
THIS JOURNAL BELONGS TO
DOUGLAS HENRY LEWIS
The tumultuous tale of the late and great American fashion designer known as Halston has been told many times before.
The story has become a blueprint or a (what-not-to-do) guidebook for designers in the past, present, and future.
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Here lies a talented, young, queer, boy with small-town roots and a knack for lifting his abused mother’s spirits by making hats for her and using his creative talent to ease her pains. The young child who was harassed by his homophobic father finds freedom by following his dreams of moving to, educating himself, and gaining fashion experience in Chicago and New York. He rises to the top of fashion – only to take a giant self-imposed plummet to tragedy, seemingly infused by one too many helpings of cocaine, an ego that is comparable to Mount Kilimanjaro, and a cavalier disregard for the business side of things.
Ryan Murphy, the notorious Executive Producer of shows such as Glee, POSE, and American Horror Story has never been afraid of breaking the boundaries of creative storytelling, sparing no detail whatsoever to get to the focal point of the protagonist’s journey.
The Netflix original entitled, ‘Halston’ which debuted on May 14th, 2021 has done it again for fans of fashion history: causing many friends and colleagues who lived through the era to speak up and recollect their memories as well. The series has eased its way into the much-coveted top ten rankings on the digital platform and after viewing, it is easy to see why.
The show does evoke strong emotions and sensory delight.
Photo: Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix
Photo: Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix
The portrayal of Mr. Halston by Ewan McGregor and Liza Minnelli by Krysta Rodriguez was spot-on and absolutely brilliant. Liza Minelli’s quirky and happy-go-lucky nature was delivered flawlessly, especially with the brilliant “Liza with a Z” performance in the first episode.
From the ‘Halston’ documentary which aired almost two years ago on CNN, we saw a clear picture being painted about his obsessive temperament with confessionals from assistants, models, business partners, and colleagues.
Seemingly, Halston was obsessed with perfecting his image and attaining an astronomical level of success. His downfall came from his disregard for how he treated others and even himself on his way to achieving all that he set for himself.
It’s an interesting narrative amongst the stories of many creatives. Even his French contemporary and rival at the time, Monsieur Yves Saint Laurent had similar internal struggles. It is a constant battle especially in an image-conscious industry such as fashion, having to balance the desire to be excited and inspired alongside keeping things reeled in with the constructs of reality.
A surprising highlight in the Netflix show was seeing glimpses of Halston's internal struggles with identity. No matter how fabulous the appearance, it is clear that he was going through serious trauma and perhaps, didn’t know how to cope with any of it in a healthy fashion.
Throughout the series, there is an emphasized imbalance between the strong beliefs he possessed within himself to make his dreams come true and the humility that was needed once he finally manifested his desires. There was always a sense that Halston was biting off more than he could chew, and as a result he turned into an aggressively abrasive character who treated his subordinates and colleagues merely as a cog in his wheel.
From a small town boy to this seemingly ferocious fashion monster, the story of Halston by Ryan Murphy flawlessly showcases the age-old philosophy that “pride comes before fall.”
Overall, Ryan Murphy’s interpretation of Halston’s life was deeply moving and extensively enlightening. The excited and inspired motivation that a young Halston seemed to possess at the beginning of his career from Bergdorf Goodman to starting his namesake label and showcasing his revolutionary designs at the 1973 Battle of Versailles was energizing, to say the least.
Perhaps the most touching of all was the inclusion of Halston’s childhood memories back in Evansville, Indiana, holding feathers and being called a “sissy boy” by his alcoholic and abusive father.
Murphy did a splendid job of giving the context of a backstory that the world had not seen much of.
The stories behind Halston’s career peaks is a theme that continues throughout the course of the series.
For example, episode three, “The Sweet Smell of Success” includes a scene that chronicles Halston’s iconic fragrance – birthed from Elsa Peretti’s onyx vase on a chain – in its developmental stages. Doing experimental research with a fragrance developer, Halston recalls memories of abusive moments with his father. According to the fragrance developer in the series, “smell is a sense that in humans, is most tied to memory.”
Halston takes this advice to heart, then returns to the fragrance developer with a “lady of the night orchid plant, a pack of “TRUE” tobacco cigarettes, and a used jock-strap from his lover Victor. The developer shamelessly smells all these things and replies, “Halston, you are a born parfumier.” The collection of “Halston” perfume is then launched, becomes hugely successful – catapulting the then-high emperor of fashion into catastrophic success, and the rest is history. The inclusion of that fragrance formulation was an expert addition to the Halston film diaspora, showcasing Halston’s genius firsthand. There is also the development of a collection of daisy-printed caftans and tie-dyed silk chiffon togas that originated from an assistant who boiled the dyes in his kitchen. Also Genius.
Photo: Jojo Whilden/Netflix
Although the series sheds a lot of light on information that wasn’t known to the public, it also has its equal share of misses. It seems as though there wasn’t enough attention to detail as it pertains to character arcs and cultural movements like the Studio 54 craze.
The lust and steamy sexuality of Halston’s relationship with physical drugs and the human drug that was Victor Hugo was intoxicating throughout the story, yet a bit vague in circumstances.
Another example sees the neglect of the “Halstonettes” backstory – compiled of Pat Cleveland, Angelica Huston, Alva Chinn, Beverly Johnson, and Karen Bjornson. In an interview about that time, Bill Cunningham once said in a review for The Chicago Tribune that “the personalities in a Halston show are half the excitement. His models—Heidi, Naomi [Sims], Pat [Cleveland], and Marina [Schiano]— each project her own kind of theater in her interpretation of the clothes she wears, whether naughty shorts or sensual jersey gowns.”
Although the show may have catered a bit too much to his personal demons rather than the creative genius that attributed to his legendary rise to superstardom, the show is binge-worthy for anyone who has the slightest mind for creativity. It's filled with high drama, very convincing costume design and interiors, and the acting is superb. The release of the show could not have been more timely, given the significant real-life rise of interest in American fashion with a return to in-person New York Fashion Week shows and the Met’s upcoming “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” costume exhibition this September.