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Calvin Klein never said anywhere in public that he was gay. Halston never said anywhere in public that he was gay.
#Gay men fashion critics series
HR: There was a whole series of gay designers working in that particular period of time, but no one was openly gay. This man could cut a bolt of fabric with one slit or one seam the dresses didn't have hooks or zippers. If anything, I think the clothes were deceptive. Here came Halston with clothes that just seemed to flow. At the time, fashion was big, flamboyant, and stiff. You’ve got to place Halston in context with the other designers of the era. My grandmother was a dressmaker, so I did care about clothes, and I knew about Seventh Avenue. But the interesting thing about Halston was the clarity of design. I was around ten, so I certainly wasn't paying attention to who did Jackie’s pillbox hat. Nationally, everybody became first aware of Halston at the Kennedy inauguration. Whether you were straight or gay, it didn’t matter. It was a period where New York was extremely hedonistic. This was right after Woodstock-all free love and sexual revolution. The seventies were an odd time in the sense that New York was dirty and dangerous, yet there was an incredible energy.
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However, I was a young gay guy, and I was out everywhere in New York. Hal Rubenstein: Halston started working in the late sixties and took off in the seventies. Rubenstein spoke with Esquire about Halston's inimitable talent, his tragic downfall, and how he changed the face of fashion forever.Įsquire: When did you first become aware of Halston, and what were your impressions of his designs? Hal Rubenstein, a founding editor of InStyle and the author of 100 Unforgettable Dresses, rubbed elbows with Halston during the Studio 54 days.
#Gay men fashion critics professional
Halston's troubled personal life would contribute to his eventual professional downfall, leading him to a much-maligned collaboration with JCPenney, and to a fatal business deal in which he sold off his most valuable asset: his name. Underscoring Halston's achievements was his hard-partying lifestyle at New York's storied Studio 54, where a combination of drugs, sex, and false friends left him increasingly volatile. Opening in Bergdorf Goodman's hat shop in 1961, the series follows Halston through formative professional experiences like the release of his breakthrough Ultrasuede shirtdress, the sensation he caused at the 1973 Battles of Versailles, and the expansion of his bespoke business into a multimillion dollar retail empire. Halston has come back into the spotlight on the occasion of Netflix's Halston, a Ryan Murphy series tracing the pioneering designer's dizzying rise and tragic fall.