Halston review: Glossy, sumptuous but flawed Netflix miniseries
14 May, 2021 11:05 PM
4 minutes to read
Ewan McGregor stars as Halston, the legendary and tempestuous American fashion designer. Photo / Supplied
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Gowns! Tantrums! Cocaine!
Take those three essential ingredients and mix them together with a splash of genius, a glug of emotional insecurity and a shot of betrayal. Voila! A heady fashion designer cocktail, served in the form of a miniseries biopic.
The designer in question is Roy Halston Frowick, known as Halston – just Halston.
With Ewan McGregor in the title role and prolific TV producer Ryan Murphy behind the scenes, Halston is the kind of attention-grabbing series which should loiter in Netflix s top 10 carousel – at least for a few days.
Halston review: Netflix’s dour miniseries is fascinated with designer’s fall
Ryan Murphy s show swaggers and staggers but finds its stride on the biopic runway
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HALSTON (L to R) EWAN MCGREGOR as HALSTON and KRYSTA RODRIGUEZ as LIZA MINNELLI Photo: Patrick McMullan
Roy Halston Frowick translated the mystique of fashion into a feeling that women of the ’70s wanted to wrap themselves up in like velvet. Or, like ultrasuede, the fabulous fabric Halston designed and marketed into various iterations of frocks that sold like hotcakes. The designer’s rise to the top of American fashion, fueled both by his fame as the man who put Jackie Kennedy in the pillbox hat and the outrageous success of the ultrasuede dress, drives episode one of Netflix’s dour but still fascinating miniseries
1964
Halston got his start as a milliner in Chicago before moving to New York and working at Bergdorf Goodman. He went on to style many high-profile celebrities, including Jackie Kennedy and her famous pillbox hat. He’s pictured here offering selections to Italian actress Virna Lisi. New York Post Archives 1971
Halston was close friends with famed jewelry designer Elsa Peretti. He’s pictured here with Peretti (left). Underwood ArchivesGetty Images 1972
Halston’s designs became hugely popular among celebrities, and his shows were can’t-miss, who’s-who events. Angelica Huston is shown here modeling a Halston original at one of his shows.
Halston on Netflix: The True Story of Halston s Boyfriends and What Happened to Them
On 5/14/21 at 9:37 AM EDT
Halston, which is streaming now on Netflix, details the rise and fall of the acclaimed fashion designer and some of the men he dated along the way. The mini-series, which stars Ewan McGregor as Halston, tells us about two of his lovers: the mild-mannered Ed Austin (Sullivan Jones) and the volatile Victor Hugo (Gian Franco Rodriguez).
As so often happens with shows based on a true story, some details have been changed for dramatic purposes or left out entirely.
The true story of Halston s boyfriends