Halston

Halston, Warhol Polaroid, late 1970's

The Halston documentary, Ultra Suede: In Search of Halston, premieres in New York at the Tribeca Film Festival. Director Whitney Sudler-Smith has included archival footage, interviews and 3D components. Unlike other recent fashion films (Lagerfeld Confidential, Valentino The Last Emperor and September Issue), the Halston film focuses on the glitter dust from the 1970's. Halston was a man who's life was a movie before it was filmed. He rose to one name fame for designing the pillbox hat Jacqueline Kennedy wore to her husband's 1961 presidential inauguration. Eventually Halston's public life took priority over design, and then addiction took over his private life. In 1984, he was fired from his own company and lost the right to design using his own name. He died of AIDS in 1990.

Halston first worked with Bergdorf in the 1960's

His innovative hat design emphasized synthetics which led to the development of synthetic draped gowns

Halston's apartment in the Olympic Towers, 1978