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Halston: The glittering rise – and spectacular fall – of a fashion icon

Posted May 18, 2021

Walk into any department store, and you’ll get a sense of the powerful brands built by high-end American designers: Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan. They created veritable fashion empires by leveraging their names to create lower-priced lines and sign profitable licensing agreements.

But before them all, there was Roy Halston Frowick – better known by the singular appellation Halston.

The subject of an eponymous Netflix miniseries starring Ewan McGregor, Halston became one of the earliest American designers to extend his brand to multiple price points. In doing so, he made designs that were normally out of reach for everyday Americans available to the masses.

But as fashion historians, Iowa State University lecturer of Apparel, Events and Hospitality Management Jennifer Gordon and professor of Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management Sara Marcketti often tell Halston’s story as a cautionary one. Though he made style seem effortless, his relationship with the fashion industry was anything but uncomplicated.

Read Gordon and Marcketti’s full article in The Conversation here.