The group does have a not-so-secret weapon in Liza Minnelli, a long-time friend of Halston’s. Halston’s life decisions become a dirge that the series embraces, especially as he’s presented with numerous doors that could have lead to more commercial success. ![]() ![]() And yet this success did not create an openness it fueled Halston's stubbornness as a businessman and an artist. He gets pushback from Mahoney that the design isn't logical or factory assembly-friendly, but nonetheless, Halston was right. Peretti is shown designing it after a necklace she wore, after Halston insisted on making. Throughout the series, Halston’s ability for genius cutting and sculpting is on display, but part of the very drama about the series concerns how certain breakthroughs were not exactly his own.Ī great example of this comes from fashion history, as with the Halston teardrop perfume bottle. Rory Culkin appears in the earlier episodes as a young Joel Schumacher, who provides the material that Halston then handles with a magic touch. There’s Elsa Peretti ( Rebecca Dayan), his go-to model or Joe Eula ( David Pittu), an illustrator who becomes like an angel on Halston’s shoulder throughout tough decisions. The story builds around him a group of up and comers in the scene, who make their own contributions, and are performed with their own compelling grace across the board. The pleasure of this captivating series is getting to see what he does with the opportunities that are given to him, especially when massive companies with seemingly good intent like Norton Simon (given a face by Bill Pullman as chairman David Mahoney) convince him to let them use Halston’s name.īut Halston didn’t achieve this success alone, even if it takes Halston four episodes here to realize that as part of his emotional journey. It is framed here as a moment in which Halston’s narcissism wins, but funding is still a problem. He holds on hope about the reopening of Studio 54, a party in which he’s helping host and plan, until he learns that honor has been bestowed upon Calvin Klein instead.The series jumps right to the beginning of Halston’s ascendance, so much that his famous design for the pill box hat worn by Jackie Kennedy is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail, despite the importance it had to getting Halston’s name and fashion into the mainstream. Liza heads to rehab, and suddenly, not surprisingly, Halston exists in isolation, alone in every sense of the word. Everyone is making bets on themselves during “The Party’s Over,” none of which work out for anyone involved.Įpisode 4 sees the ever-increasing AIDS epidemic through the lens of Victor, who tests positive for HIV, setting up sexual partners for Halston once he learns of his diagnosis. Mahoney attempts to make a play to take Norton Simon private, unfortunately being outbid by a Chicago-based company, ousted as Halston’s caretaker and business boss, replaced by Carl Epstein (Jason Kravits). It’s self-conceit at the highest level, and McGregor plays it to a tee, despite the audience’s diminishing respect, empathy, or interest in the character he’s portraying. He believes he’s the only one with talent, or at the very least, the only person in his orbit who’s truly a genius. His ego continues spiraling out of control, alienating Elsa, who has begun to have success at Tiffany’s as a jewelry designer, and Eula, who just wants them to succeed together. Halston-designed products have stopped selling at a growing rate, and Mahoney asks Eula to intervene in order to convince Halston to design jeans, which he declines. Soon, as expected, this overwhelming success comes to a screeching halt, as Halston sees rival Calvin Klein take the reins of the fashion industry. The visuals meet the man for one of the first times in the series, and it’s a wicked joy to consume. More of Halston should have followed this model of pushing the dramatics of the story to its limits, pushing its protagonist deeper into a world of surplus and gluttony. ![]() It’s a flashy, enjoyable, overdramatic display of excess and ego, two aspects intertwined with this depiction of the designer. The aptly titled fourth episode of Halston, “The Party’s Over,” contains the best non-Liza Minnelli sequence so far in the series: an intercut montage first five minutes depicting the expanded, ritzy, drug-fueled life of Halston and his friends.
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