Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston (2010) - full transcript

Smith: The '70s

had everything...

Sex, drugs, disco,

and great fashion.

When I was a kid,

I used to read about halston

in magazines

reigning over studio 54

surrounded by beautiful models

in a cloud of cigarette smoke.

To me,



he was the coolest.

- He was everything

the '70s was.

Halston is everything

the '70s was.

It was chic.

It was fun.

It was a little bit naughty.

- He was a great designer,

one of the greatest

American designers ever.

And the clothes

still stand up today.

- Halston had such



an amazing sort of presence.

He looked like kind of

movie star version

of what a designer is.

- I grew up in Hollywood,

and nothing was as glamorous

as halston.

- He looked

like a matinee idol.

He lived like a pasha.

- All the girls

were around him.

They were kind of sitting

at his feet, you know?

And I was wondering,

who is this guy

that they seem to be worshiping?

- He was the party.

It was the celebrities that

were hanging around with him.

- They danced all night

and then they slept in the day,

and the next night,

they did the same thing,

all dressed up again.

Halston was an extremist.

I mean, his designs were large.

He was large.

His fun was large.

His partying was large.

It's unfortunate

how it all ended.

- His influence

was tremendous,

but he is a bit forgotten.

Smith: My name is

Whitney Smith,

and I always wanted

to make a film

about that glamorous,

decadent time.

So over the next few years,

equipped with a series

of unfortunate haircuts,

I set out in search of halston.

Smith: My first stop

was halston's best friend

and confidant

the one and only

Liza minnelli.

As she was closer to him

than anyone,

it seemed like the perfect place

to begin.

- Like my puppy.

My puppy is a Hollywood puppy.

She never barks.

Uh, so is this a halston

you're wearing?

- This blouse is, yes.

- The blouse is?

- And, um, these are pants

that he designed

a long time ago.

- Mm-hmm.

- They're stretch velvet.

They're wonderful.

- Beautiful. Can I feel?

- Sure.

- Very soft.

- It is.

- What was, uh, halston like

as a human being?

His kind of flair?

- He was daring

and unstoppable.

Unstoppable.

An all-American kid

from the midwest.

He made it in New York

because he understood

what people needed and wanted.

He'd say,

"you can't just do something.

You gotta really...

You gotta disturb 'em."

- How do you mean disturb 'em?

- Well, he used to say,

"you gotta fuck 'em up."

- Good for him.

You know,

he knew what he was doing.

He had an eye.

He cut the skirt differently.

It flared beautifully.

And he was the first person

to be considered by Europe

a real American

fashion designer.

- And what was it like,

you know, when you would

hang out with halston,

you know, during a...

- Wonderful.

- Yeah.

- I don't know.

We... we just were so close.

He was my big brother.

I loved him.

I trusted him.

He protected me.

He was my family.

This house

that we're sitting in,

I saw this apartment,

and I thought, oh, my god,

this is way too big.

I wouldn't know what to do here.

- Mm-hmm.

- And I brought halston over,

and he said, "it's perfect!"

I said, "it's perfect?"

- Uh-huh.

- "What are you talkin' about?"

- He said,

"don't worry about it.

You go off to Tahoe

and do what you have to do."

And they designed

the whole apartment.

I came home, and Mark and I

walked in the front door,

and the whole place

was candlelit.

There were candles on... little...

You know, the votives...

On every table.

The lights were perfect.

We walked into

the most beautiful apartment

I had ever seen in my life.

And he'd gone

to all that trouble

and then left

so that we could discover it

ourselves.

It was just beautiful.

And then, of course,

it was on the cover

of "architectural digest."

- Was it?

- Yes.

- Really?

- Absolutely. Big spread.

- That's great.

So towards the end, you know,

you were the one person

to really stand by his side.

- Oh, well, no,

a lot of people did.

- Did they?

- Oh, sure. Elizabeth Taylor

and all... you know, every...

- You seemed like

his most loyal friend.

- No, I was his closest friend.

- Closest friend.

- Not his most loyal.

All his friends were loyal

who were real friends.

You know, everybody I know

loved him so much.

And when he died,

I gave him a, uh, memorial.

- What did you sing

at the memorial?

Did you sing?

- No.

- Oh, you didn't?

- It wasn't about me.

It was about him.

It was for him.

- Yeah, it was very touching.

Yeah, well,

thank you so incredibly much.

I mean, it was a great honor...

- Okay, well,

I'll tell you what.

Now you have some good areas

to go look at.

- Absolutely. Okay.

- Go do some research.

Find out about stuff.

And find out about

the solid stuff.

Fuck the gossip.

- I don't worry about

the gossip, no.

- No, this is a great American

who changed fashion in amer...

- Absolutely, yeah.

- He put us on the map.

Really, I urge you

to not go for the trashy stuff.

You know, like you said.

The... this stuff.

Look behind that.

- Yeah.

- You gotta fuck 'em up.

It was true.

- So, mom, what do you think

from my past

inspired me to do this film?

- From your childhood...

Childhood influences?

- Sure. Yeah.

- Well, let me see.

You used to watch

"smokey and the bandit."

[Jerry Reed's "when you're hot,

- I know you loved the '70s,

but I don't quite understand

what it was

about a fashion designer,

although,

now that I think about it,

you've always been interested

in fashion.

In fact, when we lived

in Washington,

you were voted

best-dressed list.

- In 1989.

- 1989.

- Great year.

- Mm-hmm.

I hope it's a big success.

Here's to you.

- Thanks, mom.

- So you can take care of me

in my old age.

Smith: While down south,

I find out there was

a halston archive

buried somewhere in the depths

of Nashville, Tennessee.

So I decided to investigate.

- We're gathered today

in the home of lipscomb center

for spiritual renewal.

As we commit ourselves

to the spiritual formation

of our students,

long view,

or as the center's director

Carl mckelvey calls it...

Smith: Scrapbooks,

boxes with, like,

weird reel tapes and...

A "vogue" cutout.

More scrapbooks,

press clippings.

Smith: I don't think

anyone's been through this

since the '80s.

This is all that remains

of his life and work.

- It's a bit strange and ironic

that someone who represented

the excess of the '70s

would end up here

in a Bible college.

- When we first acquired

halston borghese,

I don't think we were really

totally aware

that we had the archives.

- Sorry.

I don't want these doors open.

- All right,

you want to start again?

'Cause I don't have the time.

Is that it?

- We'll be in and out.

- I kind of stumbled

on the archives.

All I saw is this inventory

that said I had, I don't know,

58 boxes or something.

- Mm-hmm.

- But it didn't say

what was in the boxes.

- Yeah.

- You can tell

we do this a lot, can't you?

- Do you?

- Yeah.

I do fox on... on what?

Monday again?

- Now how did it end up

at lipscomb university?

- Well, my mother lives

in Nashville, Tennessee.

- Did you talk to f.I.I.

Or any other schools?

- Yes, f.I.I. Had some halston.

- Mm-hmm.

- Um, and really couldn't take

all the... the entire archives.

- Mm-hmm.

- But I realized

that I had a resource...

- Yeah.

- That I wanted to make sure

was preserved.

I wanted to give it...

- To a university

that, um, would appreciate it.

- Mm.

- And I wanted some place

that it could be

the cornerstone

of their fashion, uh, institute.

- Oh, that's great, yeah.

We went

and traveled down there,

and, uh, we were, you know,

really blown away

by the whole presentation.

We opened some boxes...

- Well, then you know... you know

what that experience is like.

- Absolutely.

- It was the same thing

that happened to me

opening those boxes.

- That's good, so I...

Well, that's all we needed.

That'll be great.

I'm glad you told the story.

- Oh, that was easy.

- See, wasn't that easy?

- That was so easy.

- See, I told you

it would be painless.

- Oh, dear.

- So, wanderer,

in Hollywood cinematic terms,

you're, like, the...

The wiseman guiding me on this

incredible journey of discovery.

- Okay.

- If that's all right.

- Absolutely.

- So, like, um,

so what were designers doing

before halston came along?

What was going on fashion-wise?

- Fashion-wise, halston, uh,

came along at a time

when fashion was changing.

Until 1961,

with the arrival

of Jacqueline Kennedy

in the white house,

fashion was not Democratic.

Halston had been a milliner

at Bergdorf Goodman

making hats

for the covers of "vogue,"

creating images of fantasy

and also images

of practicality in hats.

His salon at Bergdorf

was the place when women

still had to wear hats.

So halston was assigned

by Mrs. Vreeland

to help Jacqueline Kennedy

with her inaugural wardrobe,

and...

- Sorry, if I can interrupt...

But Diana vreeland...

Who is she exactly?

- Well, I'm gonna talk

about halston.

I don't want to talk about

fashion of Diana vreeland.

I don't want to do history,

and so let me talk.

Don't interrupt.

- Okay.

- Diana vreeland

was a fashion editor at "vogue,"

and she was a great catalyst

for fashion.

Mrs. Vreeland and halston

together, I think, suggested

that Jacqueline Kennedy

not wear a fur coat,

but wear a cloth coat

and then the pillbox hat.

Halston created

the famous pillbox hat.

It was a total turnabout

from what the former

first ladies would wear

to the inaugural.

And with that uniform,

that opened

the world of fashion.

So what halston stood for,

even from the beginning,

was American simplicity.

It was a time when fashion...

[Cell phone alert playing

Daniel decatur Emmett's

- Excuse me, Andre.

Careful of the...

- You should be telling him

be careful

about his cell phone ringing.

I mean... I mean,

tell him about the cell phone.

Something about...

- Shit.

You're from the south.

- Oh, am I confederate...

Did confederate soldiers

march or some shit?

- It's "Dixie."

- Oh, "Dixie." Oh, god.

You would have that

on your cell phone.

As we live and breathe.

Can I have another cappuccino,

please?

Um,

then with Jacqueline Kennedy,

then he decided

to leave Bergdorf Goodman

and go on his own

and do ready-to-wear

with a few investors

and partners,

one of them being

a former "vogue" editor

Frances patiky Stein,

he opened up his own business

on the Upper East Side

in a town house

that became the first

modern couture establishment

in America.

- Was he the first American

haute couturiere?

- No.

- Couturier?

- Before halston,

there was Norman norell

who was the master,

mainbocher...

- She has to go sit down.

She's distracting.

Tell her to go sit down.

- Sit down.

You're ruining everything.

Narrator: It was

only just a few years ago

that when one thought

of fashion designers,

names like givenchy and Chanel

came to mind.

But now for the first time,

an American designer

has appeared on the scene

and threatens to eclipse

even the best

of the French masters.

- Minimalism he invented.

The one-note look.

Before that, people were wearing

dressmaker suits,

all of the great

American designers,

and never thought

to just fall back

on some elegance and simplicity.

Halston's favorite phrase

was "less is more."

A girl would

come into a luncheon

in a halston cashmere twin set

and a skirt and a harness belt

around her waist,

a bangle or cuff

from Elsa peretti

or a silver vase

with a little orchid in it.

Cashmere... I mean, the idea

of 6-ply cashmere,

I'd never heard of.

Halston knew his business

from inside out.

He absolutely knew

what the fabrics were.

Hammered satin...

He knew where the best

hammered satin came from.

- Mm-hmm.

- He knew everything

about making clothes.

When he showed his collections,

there was such innovation.

He had an American sensibility

that had never been seen before.

- And it was innovative,

modern, unique, original.

I was working with...

At the time,

and I thought it was fabulous.

The clothes really worked...

Casual chic.

- What can I do

to get to the heart of halston?

Who should I talk to?

- Elsa peretti.

But I don't know

if Elsa peretti's

gonna talk to you.

- Why?

- I don't know.

Did she say she would?

- No.

- No.

- Well, how do I talk to her?

- It might be difficult,

but Elsa peretti and halston...

She was the one who created

the simplicity of the jewelry.

She was almost his muse.

There you go over to Tiffany's,

and you'll see all

of Elsa peretti's candlesticks,

her bone stuff,

her diamonds by the yard.

It was all done

in collaboration with halston.

She and halston

were very, very close friends.

Narrator: He receives

for lunch every day upstairs

on the third floor,

amidst the down-filled,

ultrasuede furniture

the tropical plants,

the rock music,

and the scented candles.

At a typical lunch

one day last week,

he's guests were

photographer Barry berenson,

socialite Mrs. Douglas...

Artist Victor Hugo,

fashion illustrator Joe eula,

and Andy warhol superstar

pat ast.

- Joe eula the illustrator

was very close to halston,

and they were like brothers,

and Joe eula, halston, and Elsa

was like a triumvirate

of great talent

and great personality.

Unfortunately, it's too late.

You waited too late.

You started too late.

Joe eula has gone on

to the great beyond.

You should have talked

to Joe eula at his bedside.

You would have had

a great story.

Working on a collection

had to be extraordinary.

I can imagine what it was like

at 6:00 in the morning.

They're still doing fittings,

and Elsa's standing there

being draped.

Joe eula's sketching.

Halston's designing.

The people are running

in and out of the rooms.

Halston worked

with such passion.

- Let's see you turn in that.

Let's see. All right. Okay.

- It's so soft.

I can't believe that...

- You're in chiffon.

- Oh, halston, wait till you

see me. I'm so beautiful.

- How do you feel when you,

say, walk into a restaurant

in New York,

and a lady comes in

looking smashing

in a halston outfit?

- I'm very proud.

I'm just very proud,

if somebody looks good in it.

Smith: I had zero luck

in tracking down

the elusive Elsa peretti.

I did however get a lead

on the designer

who come consider to be

halston's heir apparent.

- There could have been

no zoran.

There could have been

no Donna karan or me

or many other people

without that man

plugging into the aesthetic

of American fashion.

And anybody

that doesn't admit it should.

This man has a body of work

that's undeniably untouchable.

Before we start,

I just need one thing...

- Yeah, sure.

- And then we're going to talk.

I'm all yours.

- Yes?

- Could you bring me

three excedrin?

- Thanks.

What are you looking for?

- Well, I was looking...

You have a picture...

This is a halston, right?

- It is.

And that's ultrasuede.

- That's ultrasuede.

- It's ultrasuede.

Ultrasuede is a polyester fiber

that has been

synthetically made.

It was made in Japan,

introduced originally

by issey miyake.

It was halston

who had the brilliance

and the insight...

- Mm-hmm.

- To say, "oh, my god.

We have a synthetic that

acts like a luxury fiber"...

- Ahh.

- "But it's so practical."

Because he did have

this brilliance of marrying

practicality with luxury.

You can pop all of this stuff

in a washer

and just hang dry it,

and it dried perfectly

with the nap coming down

and no distortion to it.

- Uh-huh.

- And he did

that famous shirtwaist.

- Shirtwaist.

- It was a shirtwaist dress,

and it sold

more than any other dress

every in history.

He gave birth to ultrasuede.

Revolutionary.

The chic

and the change in fashion

was overnight.

Everything was obliterated.

Nothing looked tasteful anymore.

Everyone flocked.

Everyone wore

cashmere separates.

Everybody looked incredible.

Besides having

a serious, res... deep, deep,

deep respect for this man,

he also gave me

my first job in this industry.

I wasn't in the front

saying, "divine."

- Mm-hmm.

- I was in the back

working and making muslins.

- What'd you learn from halston

while you were working there.

- He, one evening,

took a pair of scissors,

threw a bolt

of purple silk chiffon

on the floor... on the floor...

Knew exactly where it was

going to go in dimension,

and cut into cloth,

and he cut a dress out

with no seams.

There are no seams.

It wraps around the body

in once piece,

and the top part just catches

at the top of the neck.

And as a woman walks...

- Mm.

- It opens from down there,

and she becomes...

She sort of becomes naked

in this vapor of chiffon.

This was

the most incredible thing

I've ever seen in my life.

Do you know anybody that

can look at a piece of fabric

and think in three dimensions

and cut it right there

on the floor?

I don't.

- Hi, how you doing?

Smith: A must stop

on my search

is the costume institute

which resides

in the heart of the met.

In addition to throwing

the gala of the year,

the institute preserves

the works

of the greatest designers.

- Well, here we are.

- Hi, Harold.

- Whitney, how are you?

Pleasure to meet you.

- Well, thank you so much

for your time.

- So much of what

made halston a genius

is unseen in terms

of the actual clothing.

He was no creator

of new forms of dress.

They're very simple shapes...

A tank top neckline

or a dolman sleeve.

But where they're different

is the way that the actual

garment is constructed.

Unlike a normal caftan,

which is cut

on the straight grain

and, you know, all...

Everything aligns like this,

well, what he's done

is he's played with it.

Everything is on the bias.

Everything is

at a 45-degree angle.

It then cleaves to all

the high points of the body...

The top of the hip line,

the bust, the shoulder.

It's an incredibly

flattering way

to create volume,

constructed in a way

that nobody had thought

of constructing a dress before.

If that was folded metal,

it would be

extraordinary sculpture.

I really regret that he himself

never talked about

the making of things.

He always talked about

the women who were wearing it.

- You are as good

as the people you dress.

Elizabeth Taylor,

Jackie onassis,

Bianca Jagger,

Betty Ford,

Candice Bergen.

- He had the matrons

and Marisa berenson.

The it girl of the moment

was wearing halston

at the same time

as Kay Graham.

And it's the same clothing.

Who does that anymore?

- I had one time...

58 of 'em showed up

in the same dress,

which was an ultrasuede dress,

which we sold

a few hundred thousand of.

But it was one of those dresses

that worked for everybody.

- Now how important

are the beautiful people

to a designer like yourself?

- Beautiful people

attract attention.

They're in the newspapers,

so therefore, they are

your best advertisement.

- When you won

the academy award for "cabaret,"

what were you

wearing that night?

- A yellow halston dress.

Simple tank top, long dress

with a yellow cardigan,

because my father's

favorite color was yellow.

He knew that I thought

it was good luck.

Every time I went onstage,

he dressed me.

I perspire onstage.

I mean, my hair

gets soaking wet first.

He came backstage,

and he went,

"well, you're shiny,

so you might as well

be shiny all over."

- Yes.

- And he started doing

beads and sequins for me.

Some of those clothes

have become so famous.

Minimalist, simple,

but so chic.

- Mm-hmm.

- Whitney, Cathy's here.

- Hi, Cathy.

- Hi, how are you?

- I'm good.

- How are you? How are you?

- We'll make this short

and sweet.

- Okay.

- As painless as possible.

So tell us about

the 1973 fashion show

in versailles.

Wasn't this the first time

an American designer had

been asked to show in Europe?

- Yeah.

In America,

everything was dominated

by Europe...

- Mm-hmm.

- And by couture.

American designers

really were not known.

- So the versailles show

put him on the map

internationally?

- Yeah, very much.

It was a big social thing.

It was at versailles.

Parties galore.

It was arranged

that five European designers

would show

and five American designers...

Bill blass,

Oscar de la renta,

Anne klein,

halston,

and Stephen Burrows.

- That it happened at all

was kind of a miracle.

- Yeah.

- The French didn't consider

America anything.

They were very theatrical.

They had scenery and staging.

It was really kind of corny.

- Was it?

- Yeah.

- Excuse me.

- Sure.

Anything I can do to help?

I'll try something on.

- The French marshaled

all of their effort

and the best ballet dancers,

camels and horses on the stage.

They... they got everything.

The Americans rolled into Paris

without the kind of sets

and the kind of grandiose things

that the French had planned,

and what made it work

was the clothes were so simple.

The models were great.

They had black models.

This was the first time

you were seeing all this.

- I was singing a song

called "au revoir, Paris."

We all waved, "good night!

Thank you, Paris!"

The curtain went down.

You heard...

And the curtain went up,

and the... they went bananas.

They were impressed.

- I don't know.

They just went crazy.

They call it

"the battle of versailles."

We seem to have made

the whole evening.

- Oh, I remember

Saint Laurent throwing

his book in the air

at the end of the show.

He said, "we've learned

something tonight."

- So the Americans

whipped the French again.

- Well, we didn't whip 'em,

but we did it like Americans

and like halston...

Clean, direct,

to the point...

- Mm-hmm.

- And effective.

- Succinct.

- Effective.

Yeah.

- Hi, how you doin'?

So we're looking

for the halston star

like the walk of fame

in Hollywood,

except they have a walk of fame

for the great designers,

and they have stars

on the sidewalk.

So we're going to pay our

respect to this great American.

Actually,

I think it starts here.

I think we missed it.

Hi. Hi. Quick question.

Do you know where

the halston star is?

- Haliston?

- Halston.

- Halston?

- He has a star from

the, like, famous designers.

- Oh, yeah, that's right here.

- Okay, where...

- They look

like manhole covers.

- It's these, um,

luscious manhole covers

that are also the stars.

Stephen Burrows.

- There it is.

"The '70s belonged to halston."

What was it like to work

with him in the '70s?

It must have been fun, though.

- Yeah, it was fun.

It was like a dream job.

We were at 33 union square west

which was the factory

where Andy warhol was shot.

We had a really small crew.

In the beginning,

Bob colacello and I

did just about everything.

We would go to the printer,

load the, uh, magazines,

take 'em to newsstands,

um, you know, try to sell ads.

We did everything.

- One of my first encounters

with halston

was in the early days

of interview.

Joe eula had contributed

some drawings,

and halston wanted them back.

Glenn had not taken

very care of them.

They were in the layout room

under a pile of other stuff.

When he saw them all wrinkled,

he was just...

He went ballistic.

"How dare you treat

this work of a great artist

like Joe eula...

Who does Andy think he is?

Does Andy think

he's the only artist in town?"

I was like,

"no, Andy had nothing to

do with this, halston."

- Well, I think that there

was a mutual fascination

between Andy and halston.

I think at the beginning,

they were a little bit shy

of one another,

but then they soon became

thick as thieves.

Andy's entourage mixed

with halston's entourage.

- Do you think Andy

used halston

to get, like, big-name clients

for portraits and everything?

- I think that they both

benefitted from encountering

one another's circle.

- Well,

were they competing at all?

- Well,

halston could be competitive.

I mean, he was competitive,

yeah, and he had to be

in charge.

- So halston was independent

until nor...

- Halston was independent

until Norton Simon, uh,

came along,

the Norton Simon corporation...

- Mm-hmm.

- And said, "we want to buy

your company,

and we're gonna make you

that much bigger"...

Mass-produced line,

and fragrances,

and the whole thing.

- Is anybody a bigger hit

in this business than you?

I mean...

Is there anything left that

doesn't have your name on it?

You've got luggage.

You've got, uh...

- Rugs, sheets,

perfume, cosmetics...

- Really?

- Menswear, women's wear,

shoes, bags, gloves,

sunglasses, all kinds of things.

- Holy cow.

You wouldn't have $20

till payday, would you?

I'm a little short.

- I did the olympic uniforms

also for our teams,

uniforms for braniff airlines.

I did

the girl scouts of America.

- There was talk even

of designing a uniform

for New York's finest.

- Oh, yes.

- Do these garments

and these wonderful ideas

that you...

You and your company generate...

Do they ever get to penney's?

- It started off, you know,

it seemed

like it was a great deal.

I don't know how many millions

they paid him.

But he actually sold

the rights to his name.

And I remember him saying,

"oh, I love

the Norton Simon people.

You know why I love them?

They're so tall."

- And it was like,

David mahoney was tall...

The chairman...

But David mahoney wasn't

the chairman forever.

Halston was

knocked down to earth.

That was, like, the last phrase

you would use

to describe halston.

He wanted everything

to be glamorous,

everything to be divine.

He was a Taurus,

so he should have been

more down-to-earth than he was,

but...

- So what'd you think?

- Yeah, it went very well.

- Congratulations.

- Wait, do you see that shot?

It's kind of cool.

- Hi, Paul.

- Whitney.

Smith: In the world

of licensing,

halston was a visionary.

So I went to interview

Paul wilmot

who ran his perfume division

at the time.

- They tried

this big experiment.

It was a big idea.

What would happen

if a big company would come in

and just maximize

what his business could be?

So they got the footwear

and handbags

and, uh, carpeting.

- What kind of carpet?

It wasn't shag. It was...

- No, it wasn't shag.

It wasn't

out of "Austin powers."

- My name is halston.

I'm known for the clothes

I design.

And just as clothes

dress a woman,

carpet should dress your home.

- Because it was

such a new thing,

everybody went licensing happy.

They explored

a lot of different avenues.

- Rayon...

It's going to be with us

a long, long time.

- So not to get ahead,

was it the perfume

that kind of carried it?

- The perfume was...

Was actually

from the moment it launched,

it was the cash cow.

The story...

It was well known

and it was part of the lore

of the cosmetics industry.

Some way, somehow halston also

came up with the idea

of this teardrop bottle,

and they also brought

a teardrop to the glass stopper

and everything.

It became, and it still is

today, an iconic brand.

- It took two and half years

to develop that fragrance,

and then making

an original bottle.

One of the most innovative

things that we did in that

was not put our name on it.

That was never done before.

- Halston...

He didn't like words.

He didn't write at all.

You know, he always used to say,

"words fuck me up."

So that's why we never had

an verbiage in our ad campaigns.

We never had any...

He didn't like the words.

So when it came down to coming

up with a men's fragrance thing,

he found two that he liked.

And he couldn't make a decision

between the two of them.

So he decided that he was

gonna launch both of them

at the same time,

which no one had

ever done before.

And he couldn't figure out

a name for 'em,

so they had working titles

with the fragrances,

and the one working title

was z-14,

and the other was 1-12.

And they... they became

the name of the fragrances.

- One is sort of the sexy,

you know, sensuous category.

One is the crème fraîche

category.

I think it depends very much

upon the man.

- Z-14 and 1-12.

- Sounds like a Camaro.

- I know.

It was like a...

It was like a car thing.

This is halston at his best...

Hittin' on all cylinders.

Z-14 became as common a term

as Chanel no5

or anything like that.

And the halston perfume company

be-became one of the great

success stories of the '70s

and the '80s.

- As halston's empire

kept expanding,

the king needed a castle.

And that castle...

The olympic tower.

- The... the... the big moment

was when he moved up

to, you know,

the fabulous showroom

and offices

at the olympic tower.

- He took this one, uh,

continuous space.

It was really almost

like an atrium.

It was on the 21st floor,

and the studio was trisected

by two sets

of pocket-frame doors

that slipped into the wall.

The doors were $500,000.

So if you want to adjust

to today,

it would be like $5 million

for the doors.

They were mirrored

on both sides,

and the walls were mirrored,

so the entire thing

reflected around.

- Why don't you

just turn around a little bit,

and let's see how it moves.

Yeah, that looks good.

- It was like being

in a glass box in a way.

It was so strange.

- Oh, I have to

talk about the makeup.

- What? Talk about what?

- About the makeup,

because this view

is something we used

to put our makeup on.

The twin towers...

When the twin towers were there,

that was my focus point.

- What do you mean

your focus point?

- Well, when I was

on the runway,

I'd always look

at the twin towers.

- Oh, yeah?

- Yeah.

He used to call me

"the moth"... halston.

The moth, 'cause I would

fly to the light...

All the time.

I see a moth

in the window now right there.

It's climbing up.

And there he goes.

That's me.

That's to remind me.

You feel really high.

You feel above it all,

above all the torture,

the pedestrian life.

And being close

to St. Patrick's cathedral,

he always use to say things

like, "I feel totally blessed.

I don't have to go to church.

It's right across the street."

- So how's it feel coming back

to olympic tower?

- It feels kind of spooky,

like it's another century.

It really is literally

another century.

- Yeah, that looks good, Karen.

- This is pat Cleveland

who's been all over the world

with us,

and this is Connie cook

who was born and raised

in Detroit.

And...

She's from the midwest also.

- We have some questions,

so right to the questions now.

- Yes, I was wondering

if any of your models

ever have breasts.

- Yes, they do.

Yes, they all do.

- He didn't want

a bunch of blank-faced models.

He wanted girls

with personality.

- I want, uh,

darker skinned girls,

and I want blondes and brunettes

and redheads and this and that,

and they...

And the best girl I can get

who can walk with pride,

and these are the top girls

in America.

- It was about attitude.

It was about the way you walked.

It was abut character.

Or at least that's what

I like to think I brought to it.

He was not totally unimpressed

with my provenance, and...

- I always liked to act,

so...

- Uh-huh.

- For me, it was fun

to be confrontational.

I used to come out and kind of

challenge the editors,

look them in the eyes,

do all of the things

that you shouldn't do.

The first time I did a show,

I remember getting

to the end of the runway

and doing something like this.

Halston asked me to come over.

And he said, "I don't want you

to raise your arms like that."

We don't do that

in halston shows.

The next day, there was

a big article about me,

I think in

the "Christian science monitor."

With a big photograph of me...

- Like this.

- Yeah.

- And then halston said,

"that's all right.

Do what you want."

- You can do it.

Did you get along with

all the girls? Any cat...

Catfighting or anything?

- Oh, no, there was

no catfighting ever.

We were like a clan.

At some point,

somebody called us

"the halstonettes,"

and so we happily became

the halstonettes.

- They call them

halstonettes.

- Well, I think some people do.

Women's wear

does that sometimes.

- Do they?

- "The ultra-ettes."

I-I called them the ultra-ettes

or the halstonettes.

- You coined that phrase,

though.

- I coined that phrase

in "interview" magazine and...

Thank god you've done

your homework on that.

They, um, because they

moved around in a pack,

like, you know, there's

the rat pack in Hollywood.

They moved around en masse

like the courts of Europe,

like the people at versailles

moved en masse from one place

to the other.

Halston went

with his entourage everywhere.

- When you think of entourage,

you think of...

I think of two designers.

You think of Saint Laurent,

and you think of halston.

- I think he always had

that great world around him,

you know?

And then he came here...

He came here.

Somebody gave a party

for him here,

and there was a reception

committee at the door,

and somebody said to...

I think it was

prince Rupert lowenstein...

"This is halston,"

and it's so

like a Butler's name,

that Rupert lowenstein

took off his coat

and said, "thank you, halston,"

and gave it to him.

How did halston react?

- Absolutely astonished.

- He dropped the coat

immediately, I think,

and shook hands

with Princess Margaret.

- "Thank you, halston,"

became a sort of phrase

we used all the time

from then on when...

If we saw him out,

we'd say, "thank you, halston."

- Are you famous?

- Oh,

I guess you could say so.

I guess I'm a known personality.

- So that makes you famous?

- I guess so.

- There was this big event

in acapulco.

Braniff airlines

had asked halston to design

the stewardess' uniforms

and the interiors

of braniff airlines' new planes.

And they did

this huge promotion.

They flew

a couple of hundred socialites

down to acapulco.

Lady bird Johnson was there.

The kissingers were there,

Sao schlumberger from Paris,

like a village of socialites

all competing.

Halston was there

with about 20 models.

They would always be late.

And if it was a lunch

on the beach,

the would arrive

an hour late on some yacht

and they'd all file off.

They would all be in blue.

Then that night,

they'd come filing in

to some dinner all in red.

I mean, he was just one dramatic

entrance after another.

- Hey, who's that lucky guy?

- How do you do?

I'm halston.

- I'm happy

to have you with us.

Did you know that halston

is the first American designer

to bring high fashion

to mainland China?

- Yes, every now and again,

it is good

to get out of the office.

- I certainly like

the way you travel.

- You pack the same way I do...

Only take what you need.

- Just the bare essentials.

- Mmm, butter.

- It's not butter.

- Hi, I'm Nancy Talbot

from Brooklyn, New York.

Good morning, America!

- Good morning, everybody.

It's Thursday.

It's the 2nd of October.

Halston has just come back

from eight days in China.

Uh, he presented

the first American fashion show

to the Chinese,

and halston's with us

this morning. Good morning.

- Thank you. Good morning.

- Everyone had

their own set of luggage

as a gift.

He was using the new fabric

ultrasuede on everything.

We all had an entire wardrobe,

and we had a schedule.

It said what you wore

at what hour.

We changed clothes

at least five times a day.

- It was like, what, 1980?

- It was closed, yeah.

- Yeah, it was closed then.

- It was not a thing

that you could do so easily.

- What was the purpose

of the trip?

- You know, we were trying

to make trade with China

and visit all the, uh,

silk factories.

- Oh, yeah?

- It was very difficult

at the beginning,

because it wouldn't open up.

Yes, you would design

something for it.

Is it that complicated

to change the patterns?

Is that possible?

The formalities

surprised me a bit.

They're very shy,

and their... their culture

doesn't permit them

to be as open as we are

as Americans.

All of a sudden,

one of the girls stood up,

and she walked around,

and they started looking at it.

And then another one walked up,

so I've got all these assistants

to bring everything in,

and they were like children

with new toys.

It was just bedlam.

- It was

an absolute breakthrough.

- I considered it

a great compliment

that she wanted to put it on.

- He met with

all the top business people,

and they were all dressed alike

in gray uniform.

It was very much part

of being who he was...

An American.

He went to China for America.

He went to versailles

for America.

He did everything for America.

Did you meet him?

- No, unh-unh.

- Have you met him?

Kind of... he looked

kind of like you.

- He looks like me?

- Yeah, kind of like you,

you know?

- How is that?

- Well, in a black suit...

He always wore black.

He had kind of longish hair

like that, uh...

- Mm-hmm. That's good.

Well, thank you. That's...

- And he always wore

a turtleneck.

Smith: Standing in front

of halston's house,

I can only imagine

what it must have been like

to be at the height of it all,

king of New York.

- Oh, my god.

- Hi. Sorry.

We got poured on.

Yeah, that's all right.

- Oh, okay.

Uh, he's still waiting

for...

- I have the luxury

of having

the only contemporary house

in New York City built

since the second world war,

which is a really supermodern

push-button life kind of house.

It has a 30-foot-high ceiling,

and a 60-foot-long sitting room,

and a big fireplace.

At the end of it

is a big bamboo greenhouse

and so forth.

It's a dream really.

- Hi.

I've seen a photograph

of your apartment,

your living room,

and it was done

in monochromatic grays.

Did you design that?

- I didn't design the house.

It's a major architectural house

designed by Paul Rudolph,

who's one of the great

American architects.

But the gray is my idea, yes.

It just... it brings people out.

- So would

the dinner parties be here or...

- Dinner parties would be here

if it was small or a buffet.

And you went to sit

all over the room

where... wherever you chose from.

Smith: Anyone who's anyone

was in halston's living room,

and no one was more on the scene

than boaz mazor,

who agreed to meet us here.

You think

those couches are original

from the halston time?

'Cause it's kind of

his gray monochrome.

- You know something?

It's very funny, because they

were more or less like that.

It's very much characteristic

to what we would sit down on.

It was very low,

very low lighting,

candles all over the place.

- Candles?

- Yeah.

And that place there

were you see all these trees...

- Mm-hmm.

- Was thousands and thousands

of orchids.

The death trap, of course,

was this staircase.

I mean, if you

were a little bit too drunk

or too high...

- Mm-hmm.

- You might have not finished

the night.

I don't know if there

was a lawsuit those days

against somebody.

- But I think that if my...

Smith: What first

intrigued me about halston

were stories of the legendary

dinner parties he used to give,

all these incredible people

reveling in the last throws

of decadence...

Yves Saint Laurent,

beatty, bacall.

When the current owner

bought the house

from halston's estate...

Salvador dalí.

He kept these warhol polaroids

hanging right here.

Miss Liz's birthday

with probably Betty Ford

somewhere.

A brilliant monument

to a lost era.

Definitely get Bianca Jagger

shaving her armpit there.

That's an important piece

of history.

- Jackie o. Discoing

at 54.

There's Bob colacello

and Truman capote.

Boaz, so tell me the story

behind this picture.

What's going on here?

- Well, this was... here I am,

young boy, all eager to go out.

As you can see, at this point,

I didn't even own

a leather jacket,

to my surprise.

Philip niarchos

was a holding a cigarette.

I hate to say it,

but it was a joint.

They airbrushed

a whole real cigarette longer.

I don't think this was as long.

It was much shorter.

So this was a group

out on the town to...

To conquer the city.

It was a wonderful time.

- What does it feel like

coming back here?

Is it like...

- No, it's very...

- Bring back old memories...

- Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

- Or is it like a different...

- Well, you know, it's life

is gone, and we have... have...

Of course, I don't know

who can replace halston.

- Yeah.

- There was enormous energy

there.

- Mm-hmm.

- There was enormous energy

all over New York.

- Well,

how do we get it back?

- Oh, nothing comes back.

- Really?

- Nothing comes back.

- So you think that's it?

- I think we... we lived

in a very exclusive moment.

- Yeah, I think so.

Yeah.

- I really do.

- Did you ever go

to some of the dinner parties

there?

- Mm-hmm.

- What, you can't talk

about that, either?

- No. You can't.

- Really?

Well, it must have been fun,

though.

- Fun's the word.

- It was all part

of that halston moment.

- You said,

"when hedonism was chic."

- When hedonism was chic.

- Really?

- It's not... it wasn't about

the food.

- No, absolutely not.

It's about the... about

the clothes.

- No, it wasn't about

the clothes at a dinner party.

- I was just kidding.

- Turn that off.

Smith: So halston

had this boyfriend around

for the longest time

called Victor Hugo.

- Victor Hugo was so bad...

You know, the painter friend.

- Victor Hugo,

who was crazy as a bedbug.

- What was up with Victor Hugo?

- Oh, he was just as bad

as bad can be.

- What does he do?

He's an artist, you know.

I never knew

if he sold anything.

- Victor Hugo was like

the classic court Jester.

Smith: No one personified

halston's crazy energy

more than Victor Hugo,

his lover and alter ego.

And I was about to meet

one of the people

who knew him best...

'70s survivor ming vauze.

- Hey, how are you?

- So Victor Hugo...

What was his actual relationship

with halston?

I mean, what was there...

What was the dynamic?

- Uh, well, uh, obviously,

there's, uh, it's tempestuous,

but it's also love.

It's two dynamic personalities.

Roy halston frowick

is a midwestern boy

from Indiana,

and Victor Hugo

is from Caracas, Venezuela,

and he came here actually...

- Wait. What's his real name...

Victor Hugo's real name?

- Victor Hugo rojas...

R-o-j-a-s.

- So it wasn't after

the... the French author?

- In a way.

- Yeah?

- I think he likes

that confusion.

People go, "oh, you're

Victor Hugo, the writer?"

- It's also a play on words,

because supposedly,

he had one of the huge...

- Exactly. Exactly.

- You know, o-okay.

So let me ask,

who was ming vauze?

- That was me.

- Was that your nom de plume,

nom de guerre?

- That was actually

a Victor creation.

- Was it?

- He always encouraged me.

"Why don't you get onstage

and do some lip-synching

for fun?"

- Oh, yeah.

- So I said, "what stage name

should I have?"

And he gave me miss ming vauze.

But the vauze is v-a-u-z-e.

He claimed it's the Puerto Rican

way of spelling that.

That was probably 1978, '79.

- Okay.

So he was just, like,

hitting his stride then... Victor?

- He was on the height of that,

yeah.

Every picture

of the halston group,

you'll see him in there,

and also his windows

are getting very famous.

- Yeah, what kind of windows

was he doing with halston?

- Like, he would do a window

of a woman giving birth,

but it's over a course

of seven days.

Like, he changes the window

every day a little bit...

- Mm-hmm.

- Until, the last day,

it gave birth.

- All his references

are kind of like surreal

and related to childhood.

I think that's very primitive.

- Interesting.

- Hi, my name is Victor Hugo.

Je m'appelle estvictor Hugo.

I'm here because, um,

I was a great friend of Andy.

- What was Andy's appeal

or what was his fascination

with Victor?

- Andy really likes Victor

a lot.

He has that edge

people don't have today.

He would be helping Andy

with the sex parts,

the serious sex parts.

- What was that?

- Tits, ass, cock,

and all of that stuff.

- What was

the most outrageous thing

he ever did?

- I remember, like,

he wanted to do chicken art.

He put red paint underneath,

uh, on the chicken's paws

and then have them walk

all over blank canvases.

It was the biggest mess.

- Didn't he masturbate

into a chicken on live TV?

- Probably he did.

I didn't know that part.

- It was, like,

some fake chicken he brought out

and I guess started jerking off

into it.

- How close were you

to halston?

- As... as close as to having

my own bedroom between the two

in montauk for two summers.

- That's pretty close.

- There's gotta be some stories

behind that.

- Yeah.

Well, those stories

should just go to grave.

I think they're... they're...

Don't you think?

That's better sometimes.

- That makes sense, yeah.

- Oh, thank you.

- Great. Thanks again.

Nice meeting you.

- A pleasure.

- You know halston,

the big designer?

- Mm-hmm.

- His seamstress was here

the other night

with Calvin klein's chauffeur.

Lots of biggies!

[The weather girls'

- We're your weather girls.

Smith: I wondered

if halston's minimalist designs

were some kind of reaction

to the insanity around him.

I needed to find out more

about the dark side of New York

in the '70s,

and this idea

that Rome was burning.

[Mendelssohn's "wedding march

- Could you do

"in-a-gadda-da-vida"?

- Oh, that's, uh...

- That's some juice.

- Yep.

That's my new baby.

- So in your song "big shot,"

you mention halston.

Was that kind of like

your reaction against disco,

or how did that come about?

- "They were all impressed

with your halston dress,

and the people that you knew

at Elaine's."

Well, halston was the big name

in New York.

Even I knew who halston was,

and I... believe me, I know

nothing about that shit.

- Yeah.

- He was at studio 54.

He was hanging out

with that disco crowd.

Um, he was always

where the scene was.

- So give us a sense of,

like, New York '70s.

What was that like living in...

- Well, in... in New York,

especially, there was a sense

of potential impending disaster.

The crime rate was high,

drugs being dealt

right out there in the street,

a lot of prostitution.

We had just ended

the war in Vietnam.

You know, there was the...

The Nixon debacle.

Uh, everybody was cynical.

There was a blackout.

I think it was in '77.

I was in Lincoln center

at philharmonic hall.

We were watching boz scaggs.

- And we're sitting there,

and he's doing...

And the whole thing just dies.

It was just chaos.

I mean, cars were piling up.

People started directing traffic

in the middle of intersections.

Shit hit the fan.

It was a sense

of impending doom.

- So would you say, like,

the reaction was to

kind of have fun...

Disco, sex, drugs, everything?

- There was a lot of that,

absolutely.

It was... it was like a big party.

You know, they... they talk about

the stories of Hitler's bunker

at the end of the war.

Everybody

was drinking champagne.

Everybody was boppin'

everybody else in the bunker...

- Yeah.

- Because the... the Russians

were gonna come any second.

- Yeah.

- Well, there was a sense

of that in New York.

It was just everything

was over the top and excessive.

- Do you believe this?

Every night, rain or snow,

these frantic night people

stand here for hours

waving and yelling, "me! Me!

Chose me!"

Well, we're at the most famous

disco in the country...

Of course it's New York's

studio 54.

And this guy right here

is studio 54's owner

Steve Rubell.

He's the man who decides.

They all wait

for his golden touch,

that magic hand

that will let them through

that velvet rope,

the touch that means,

"you've made it.

You've been accepted."

- Steve Rubell

had opened this club.

Halston had been invited

to the opening of it,

and he went and looked around

and it was the old

ed Sullivan theater.

He said, "you know what?

I'm gonna give

Bianca's birthday party here."

He did that,

and it got the place publicity.

- Even if you have

the $10 fee,

you're not always

guaranteed admission.

And if Steve doesn't like

the way you look,

you'll never get in.

- I moved to New York

in August of '77.

- Hi. Seeing Jim Moore.

- It was the summer of...

The summer of Sam.

- I prefer "teen vogue."

- It was like, you know,

maybe a month after

the blackout.

Your badge of merit

was to get mugged.

It was

a completely different New York.

I did have friends

that loved going to studio 54.

I'd be doing my schoolwork,

and they would take the pen

out of my hand and say,

"come on, let's go."

So we would go three nights

a week, and, you know,

it's one of those situations

where, when you pull up

in your taxi,

you've got two minutes

to get in, because if they start

recognizing your face,

then you're kind of like

the loser, you know, who's,

like, waiting in the crowd.

- Yeah.

- I just, you know, remember

looking from side to side,

again, all kind of

in slow motion and seeing,

like, girls shivering

in strapless dresses,

this frizzy hair, and you

just knew they had been there

for a long period of time.

- Yeah.

- You just wanted to tell them

all to go home, you know?

The whole thing was so evil.

You know, often times,

I would be in there

for a couple of hours,

and I would come out,

and I would still see

that same girl shivering

in her strapless dress.

- We went there, and people

were so beautifully dressed,

at least in the summer.

If you went to a discotheque

now, it's shake it to make it.

Then you

would have been dressed.

- Tonight happened to be

Liza's birthday,

and everybody was there

to celebrate from Truman capote

to Andy warhol.

And a host

of New York, New York's

beautiful people

were dancing the night away.

And, of course, halston

blessed and dressed them all.

- The thing about halston

and Andy warhol

and others like that

is they stood out.

You wanted to know

who they were.

- Yeah.

- Who... who is that?

You didn't necessarily

hear about them first.

You saw them and went,

"who is that person?"

I was a kid, and I had a job

as a photographer

going out to parties.

I used to make a whole $3

a photograph.

Halston had such amazing

sort of presence.

He looked larger than life

to me.

He liked having beautiful people

around him.

It all became one big niche.

- You feel it.

I mean, the excitement

of the props coming down

and the... the balcony...

It's just exciting.

It's where you come

when you want to escape.

It's... it's really escapism.

- "A champion of dance,

his moves will put you

in a trance,

and he never leaves

the disco alone.

Arrogant, but not conceited,

as a man, he's complete.

My crème de la crème,

please take me home.

He wears the finest clothes,

the best designers,

heaven knows,

ooh, from his head

down to his toes.

Halston, Gucci, fiorucci."

- Which was the only thing

that we could have rhymed.

You know, to us halston was

the ultimate cool guy...

- Sure.

- That sort of represented

this mythical person

that we were trying

to paint in the song.

It's funny how, uh,

we were really married

to that place.

Grace Jones had invited us

to see her new year's Eve show

at studio 54.

So she says, "oh, darling,

nile, why don't you and 'nard

come over,

'cause I'd love you to produce

my next album,

you know what I'm saying?

I love you."

It's like, "all right, cool,

grace, put our names

on the list."

- Mm-hmm.

- Of course, if you know grace,

making a plan with grace

is like making a plan

with grace.

- Uh-huh.

Our song, "dance, dance, dance

had been pumpin'

into that place.

- Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah.

- So I guess grace thought

that we were

in the inner circle,

but we weren't.

They didn't let us in

no matter what we said.

We said, "check the list.

We're personal guests

of grace Jones,"

blah, blah, blah.

We went around to the back door.

Same deal... guy says,

"you're not on the list.

You know, I don't see chic here,

chic shit."

We walked around the corner

to my apartment

after getting a couple bottles

of champagne.

And we got pretty lit,

and we started jammin'.

Yeah.

- Fuck off.

Fuck studio 54.

And then 'nard said,

"man, do that jazzy shit."

And I went...

Bernard looks at me

and went,

"you know this shit

is happenin', right?"

- "You know that.

You know this shit

is happenin'."

So I went, "bro, how about..."

And Bernard, man,

it was just a light bulb

went off over his head,

and he went, "that's it..."

- Uh-huh.

- "Freak out."

- And that became the anthem

of studio 54.

- There were many nights

when both of us

had to work the next day.

When we'd go in the front door,

get everybody settled,

we'd go right out the back

and go home.

Just go home,

because you had to get up

in the morning.

- You would end up

out of that door at, like,

8:00 or 9:00 in the morning.

- Okay.

- Oh, yeah.

- Yeah.

- He gave us... I remember,

he'd given us black sunglasses,

like, these mirrored sunglasses,

'cause we always would stay out

till, like, 8:00, 9:00,

10:00 in the morning.

- Yeah.

- Well, he always had

these big windows.

The sun was always coming in.

So he had, you know,

dark glasses a lot, you know.

- Well, how wild did 54 get?

- It wasn't that wild.

- It wasn't?

- No, I mean, everybody likes

to make it that wild,

but I never saw anything.

- Coke and quaaludes.

- Coke and... lots of quaaludes

and lots of coke.

- Lots of liquor.

- Doesn't quaalude make you

go to sleep or make you tired?

- No, 'cause it balances out

- of course, halston

protected me from everything.

- Sure, yeah.

- But I mean,

I never went to the balcony.

Who went to the balcony?

He didn't.

- Did you two go down there?

- There was, like, all these

little, um, cages downstairs.

- Cages?

- People would be down there

having sex and doing drugs.

- And a lot of celebrities

would go down there.

- Yeah, it was such a...

- 'Cause you could do the coke

and the drugs down there.

- And people wouldn't

be watching.

- Whoever was up there

was doing their own thing

it wasn't my business or his.

- Yeah. So it wasn't as good

as people say it was.

- What do you mean by "good"?

- There were, like, mattresses

on the floor.

- And rugs.

- Mattresses?

- Oh, yeah.

- Weren't they filthy,

these mattresses?

- Oh, disgusting.

- Filthy, disgusting.

- And they'd still

get on 'em anyway.

- Oh, my god, and the people

that you would see down there.

- Good question.

You know, kind of...

You know, a little sex,

have a little fun,

get a little wild.

I don't know, I mean,

something along those lines.

- Never happened to me.

- Well, I'm not saying...

- Never happened to him either.

I was with him.

- Maybe it seemed really fun

because we were on

so many drugs.

We didn't know otherwise.

You know, I mean...

- So what was Victor Hugo up to

during 54?

He was a total freak

from my understanding.

- He was crazy.

- A good crazy.

- A good crazy.

- A good crazy?

- A lot of energy, good energy.

- Yeah.

- He had his own language.

- He didn't make any sense.

He had his own lang...

- Sex addict.

He was a total sex addict.

- But he was so out there.

But you know what?

He would bring us

over to halston's,

and halston would give us

clothes to wear and stuff.

And we would go out on the town.

- And the next thing you know,

Victor's tearing up

your clothes.

- Or spray-paint

or throw paint on you or...

Like, he would be

on the dance floor

or in the club

running up to people

he didn't know

and tearing things,

'cause he would think

that was art.

- These are Victor's shoes

that he sculpted.

- You mentioned

about Truman capote...

- I called him a queen.

- You did?

- Yeah. He actually slapped me.

- He did?

- He said,

"you're nothing but a whore."

- It was his face-lift party.

- Yeah, it was

his face-lift party.

He'd just had a face-lift.

- A face-lift party?

- That's what it was.

And Truman didn't want me

to come in.

"Not until he apologizes."

You know, like...

- And I had to kiss his ass.

- Well, why would he throw

a party for a face-lift?

- 'Cause he wanted everyone

to see what he looked like

afterwards.

- What did he look like?

- I don't remember.

I was on drugs.

And everyone there was on drugs.

- A lot of that time

has made my career what it is,

because I was exposed to that

at such an early age.

I was a busboy at studio 54...

- Oh, really?

- Early on, yeah.

David lachapelle and I

were both busboys there.

- Oh, I'm so sorry.

- Have you noticed the camera?

That's cool.

I would like you

if you walked away.

- How crazy was it then?

- It was insane.

It was bananas.

It was just bananas.

- What was the most, like,

fucked-up thing you saw there?

- Um...

It was... I don't remember

the... the massiveness,

I remember the opulence.

I remember the parties.

New year's Eve

with 6 inches of glitter

on the ground.

And so for days after

you saw the glitter

on the streets.

There will never be anything

like studio 54 again.

It's just forever here

and here.

- We're here at Bryant park,

fashion week,

where editors come and look

at the latest fashions

and styles,

buyers see what they want,

and dudes like me come

to check out the models.

Come on in.

Let's have a look.

- Oh, mama.

Who is that?

Excuse me.

Who was that?

- Kelly rowland

from destiny's child.

- How do you know that?

- Halston... he lived in the age

of really living.

Nowadays everybody worries

too much about being

commercially viable as opposed

to thinking differently.

- I'm looking for halston

these days.

- Are you?

- Yeah.

I miss him.

- Halston has always been

a major inspiration to me.

Do you want me to take you

through some of the pieces?

- That's okay.

- Okay, I don't mind.

- Did you ever get any halstons

on "sex and the city"?

- I did, I did.

- Yeah?

- I put, uh, Sarah Jessica

in a halston

when she was going out

with the politician.

- Oh, yeah?

- So we had a little play

on Jackie o.

- All right.

- Hey, naeem, great show.

How are you?

- Good to see you.

- Good to see you.

- Good.

It's a dress, right?

This is a...

The way it all wraps around,

one halston would be proud of.

In the mood of halston,

we have to have a drink.

- Okay, absolutely.

It's so nice, thank you.

- We live in the halston way.

If you don't live it,

you don't feel it.

Well, cheers, guys,

good to have you here.

- Cheers, thank you.

- Cheers.

- You're welcome.

- I'll second that.

- I think this is

my favorite interview so far.

- My father came here

to do business with halston.

My family in India

makes embroideries and beading.

It's a 3-generation-old

business.

Halston said to me,

"why don't you work for me?"

- The best education.

- He said, "this is the best.

I'll teach you everything."

So I got on the plane,

and I came to America.

And I became

halston's assistant.

He's taught me

everything I know.

He used to tell me, "naeem,

the fabrics will teach you.

The fabric tells you

what it wants to do.

If you have a connection

with your fabrics,

you'll be the best designer.

You have to dream of things.

It has to come in your dreams."

But I had some

amazing moments with halston.

I do want to tell you

when I first joined halston.

So the first month

that I'm here,

halston says to me,

"I'm having a party at 54.

And I... do you have a tuxedo?"

I said, "what's a tuxedo?"

- Halston takes me

straight to Elizabeth Taylor,

and he says, "this is naeem,

my new assistant from India."

And I had no idea

who Elizabeth Taylor was.

I think it was

a Valentine's day party.

All the girls who are serving

are totally stark naked.

The pubic hair is shaved

into a heart shape...

- Really?

- And it... and it's pink.

And I had never heard

what long island iced tea was,

because I'm coming from India,

thinking tea.

So I had four of them.

And Steve Rubell had painted

the entire room

in electric blue.

And all this paint has...

Is slowly getting stuck

to my jacket.

I'm electric blue now.

I take the train,

and I fall off to sleep

at 3:00 in the night.

In the morning I wake up

with my big afro,

my blue tuxedo,

and I see all these people

coming in suits,

and the conductor's

waking me up.

- I used to be so sick

in the morning

when I used to wake up

from all the drinks

and everything else.

And then you're back at work

at 10:00 or 10:30.

And if you did not,

and halston was there

before you,

forget about it.

- But it's his fault

for making you feel that way

in the first place.

- No, but he was also...

No, he'd say, "you were having

a good time with me.

Job comes when job has to be."

In short, party hard, live hard,

and have the best life,

because life is so short.

And halston lived it.

He really did.

- Ladies and gentlemen,

the president

of the United States

and Mrs. Reagan.

- In 1981,

with the inauguration

of Ronald Reagan

and Nancy Reagan

coming into the white house

as first lady,

designers whose clothes

were more opulent

came to the fore.

Rich people really wanted

to look rich.

Halston's kind of

more minimalist style

fell out of fashion.

But I don't think

that was the real problem.

I really think it was the fact

that he'd be going

to the bathroom ten times

in the middle

of a business meeting.

I think the personal problems

were what really did him in.

- And when it comes to drugs

and alcohol, just say no.

- I mean, 'cause, like,

halston sustained

a lot of success

for a very long time,

burning the candle at both ends.

- Well, if you don't

overdo anything...

You know, moderation...

You can get by.

But I think it's gotta

affect you, because...

- Or drain you after a while.

- Yeah, I mean, I think

it really... it did.

I mean, I had to give it up,

'cause it was just too much.

- Yeah.

- I think he probably

started having too much fun

in the evenings.

- Hmm.

- And then the mornings

became harder.

It was sort of unthinkable

in that person

that I'd first met.

That person...

He didn't have time

for all of that.

He was an artist...

- Yeah.

- And I was shocked

when he succumbed

to the currency of fame.

- Just sit down

and work with me.

- Cassini once had

this great line about, you know,

"if your customers

come to you in a limousine,

you'll go home in a bus.

If your customers

come to you in a bus,

you'll go home in a limousine."

The idea was j.C. Penney

was accessible fashion.

- I am pleased to announce

an association

between halston enterprises

and j.C. Penney.

- It was all launched

at the museum of natural history

in New York.

- The question's then asked,

and we ask again,

why halston and j.C. Penney?

- When I was a kid,

I always shopped at penney's.

My mother always took me

to penney's

to buy all the clothes

that we wore to school

and everything else.

And it's true.

I come from des moines, Iowa.

- The one, the only halston.

- Thank you very much.

Thank you very much,

ladies and gentlemen.

This has been probably

the most challenging

and gratifying

fashion exercise...

- Ordinarily,

halston creates clothes

that a lot of women like,

few can afford, however,

if you'll pardon the expression.

That is by design.

But now halston is coming out

with a line of apparel

that anybody could afford

at prices from $10 to $200.

Starting this summer,

clothes will be appearing

at 1,700 j.C. Penney

department stores

all across the country.

Halston says his agreement

to turn out clothes for penney

will run for about six years.

Here it is...

A billion-dollar deal.

That's how you would

describe it, isn't it?

- Yes, bill,

it is a billion-dollar contract,

which is a lot of money

and a lot of work...

- Unbelievable.

- And a lot of jobs

for a lot of people.

- Halston III

exclusive designs...

- Now this is called

halston III.

- It's called halston III.

- Why?

- Well, it's really

the third stage of my career,

the first being

in the millinery business,

and then in fancy clothes

and dressing all the stars

and things,

and now a larger public...

Dressing America, really.

- Do you think this is a risk

to your reputation

or career?

- Oh, I think

it can only enhance it.

- Mm-hmm.

- It's a larger public.

It's much more interesting.

I've always wanted to embrace

that American public.

And you know, I believe in them.

It... it's a wonderful thing.

It's always what I wanted to do.

- 1,700 stores...

- With the best people ever.

- The biggest thing, I'm sure,

you've ever done.

- Oh, for sure.

- Hi, can I help you?

Are you interested in buying

a halston dress?

- Are these the same clothes

that, um, Elizabeth Taylor

and the celebrities wear?

- Yes, these are some of...

- The same type of clothes...

- I don't see

where the shoulders are.

And look at the back.

- Yeah, well...

- It's called

investment dressing.

- This one is $55.

- It didn't sell.

Not only did it not sell,

but it was discontinued.

At the same time,

Bergdorf Goodman wanted to send

a signal to the design community

that if you're gonna sell

a mass retailer,

you... you're not gonna be able

to sell Bergdorf Goodman.

So Bergdorf Goodman

tossed the line out.

- Didn't you run

into some trouble with Bergdorf,

who was the first fashion...

- Oh, not at all.

No, I don't think so.

You know, Bergdorf...

You know, I wish them well.

I started my career at Bergdorf

and helped make Bergdorf famous.

But Bergdorf

is a rather small account

compared to all America.

- It was scandalous.

People were shocked.

It was like...

It was as if you heard

Rolls-Royce was going to do

supermarket carriages.

I mean, it...

The idea of a name...

- Oh, yeah.

- That stood for such quality

and glamour...

That it would go so down-market

was alarming.

- And this is your first trip

to New York City?

- Yes, it is.

- Are you having a good time?

- Oh, I'm really enjoying it.

- We made some suggestions

for you here.

This coat is the cover

of the j.C. Penney's catalog.

This is $120,

and I don't know

how in the world

they make it for that price.

And this is velvet

with some ostrich feathers.

I love using a schoolteacher.

I just love it.

- He was considered tainted

after that.

- Yeah, I think so.

- It was such a different time.

- Diane Von furstenberg

is a survivor of halston.

In a way,

her wrap dress was very much

like a halston pattern.

- Hmm.

- You know, just a simple

origami pattern...

- Mm-hmm.

- Flattered the body.

- I was young in the '70s.

I was very young.

I came to America.

I was 22.

I married a prince.

I had two children.

And I started a business...

Everything in the same year.

I always said that, you know,

I'm a jet-setter,

because I took it on a jet.

Halston created

such a liberated fashion.

That is really what inspired me

to go myself into fashion,

because it was all about jerseys

and colors and fluidity.

And it was a very modern

approach to fashion.

It wasn't old-fashioned

dress-making.

I was very young.

The whole world of licensing

was very new.

Sometimes you made mistakes,

because you associated

with the wrong people

at the wrong time.

Uh, for him,

it was he associated

with j.C. Penney.

- Do you think if someone

was to align themselves

with j.C. Penney today,

would that be the same...

Same reaction?

- Somebody... you can do it,

but it's difficult,

and no one really has succeeded.

I myself... I mean, you know,

you do make mistakes.

But halston's was, you know,

a combination of... of...

I don't know.

He lost his heart into it,

I guess.

- Why is that?

- I don't know.

It's a lot of, you know,

'70s phenomenon.

- Yeah.

- Abuse.

- Oh, there's Liza down there

kissing Andy warhol.

- Oh, okay.

- These are these cool

surfboards that I did,

one-of-a-kind surfboards.

That's Salvador dalí.

For one of warhol's birthdays

he wrapped up lots of garbage

in gaffer's tape

and then just signed it "dalí."

Check it out.

Warhol and I wanted to do

a collaboration.

- Is that wig...

- That wig.

Check it out. There you go.

Talk about history.

Oh, this here...

This is a Billy boy doll.

They somehow think that this is

anatomically correct.

- How close were you to warhol?

- Well, we weren't

fuck buddies.

- I'm not asking that,

for fuck's sake.

- Well, that's a good answer,

though, isn't it?

I could just sit here

and be warhol-esque

and just say yes and no.

- Yes. No.

- Maybe.

- I mean, he was a pretty tough

interview, wasn't he?

I mean, he'd just kind of make

people thoroughly uncomfortable.

- Yes.

- Hello?

Oh, my god. How you doing?

So...

My publisher's having brunch

with somebody from I.C.M.

Do you have a-a story

about halston?

Oh, that's very good.

Oh, that's a very good story.

This is the story.

Every time it would be

Andy warhol's birthday,

halston would say,

"it's time for Andy's birthday.

Let's just go up there

and give him lots of money,

crush it up,

and throw it into the fireplace

and watch Andy burn his fingers

trying to get it."

I have a huge question.

Was 54 overrated?

I mean, how great was it?

- I... it was pretty cool.

I liked it.

- Mm-hmm.

- I-I liked it a lot.

- Miss it?

- Not at all.

It was usually older people

looking at younger people,

hoping to get laid...

- Or it was younger people

looking to further their career

with the older people...

- Okay.

- And hoping that

you wouldn't have to get laid.

I mean, everybody

was working everybody.

- Uh, hello?

Hi. I did see that,

and I have a good...

I'm so glad, Peter,

that you called.

Well, actually this person

used to supply all the orchids

to halston.

I mean, any kind

of story, Peter.

- Halston took it

to an extreme.

You know, at any one time

he would probably have

between 60 and 80 plants.

- I... well, no more so

than other part of his life.

- It is an elaborate party

by any measure

of the imagination.

As halston led me

through his office,

I was awed by the scope

of his sense of what

entertainment is all about...

Waiters standing by,

top-shelf liquor.

The first question I asked,

how much this simple home party

was going to cost.

- The business manager

from Beatrice

pulled me aside one day

when I was delivering flowers

to...

He said, "did you know

that halston is spending

$60,000 to $100,000 a year

just on flowers?"

And I said, "oh, really?"

- I mean, I-I do remember

some of these sort of sad irony

about how halston

had branded himself

as one of the chicest,

coolest designers,

and he sold himself

to a big company.

- Yeah, Norton Simon

bought him.

- Right.

And then the company that makes

playtex living bras bought it.

And then what happened,

Beatrice foods,

which makes mayonnaise,

bought that company.

- It's very painful

to talk about.

I-I sold the licensing

of the name

to a large corporation,

and it snowballed

out of control.

- Oh, heavens.

- The name halston is

actually owned by j.C. Penney,

revlon, Beatrice.

- Yeah, you know...

- What kind of a gal

is Beatrice?

I always think of her

as a heavy-set woman.

- As I was trying to say...

- Here's a man that was so used

to having, you know,

thousands of dollars worth

of orchids in his...

And now suddenly you have

a mayonnaise company

who... who is giving you

the instructions.

"We got to cut the budget,

no more orchids."

- Do you think his spirit

was crushed?

- Yes. Happy holidays. Hi.

- Bianca, Liza, bacall...

They adored me.

Studio 54 was my living room.

I gave the most fabulous parties

in New York.

Well, you can ask anyone,

of course...

- Well, now your name

is tacked on

cheap luggage and pencil sets.

As a matter of fact,

I was shocked to see

halston aquarium gravel

at walgreens.

- You know, the man who...

Who... who was... um, Mr. Epstein.

- Carl Epstein.

- Carl Epstein.

- Wait, so Carl,

but he was kind of

this accountant type,

I understand, a number cruncher.

- A number cruncher.

And they just didn't get along,

and he did not like the ways

halston worked...

Parties, wild life,

and all that stuff.

- The rumors of the... of

the drug-taking were everywhere

and very big mood swings.

And he had a bad temper.

You know, if he didn't

like something, you know,

on go the glasses

with the mirrors,

so, of course, you have...

You can't see his eyes.

You're watching yourself.

- The last time I saw him

I was just about to go back

to Europe to live.

I was feeling very bad,

because a lot of my friends

had passed away,

um, you know, from aids,

and I was upset

with Victor Hugo,

because I knew

he was running around

with all these different men,

and I was very afraid

for my friend halston.

He was more interested

in what he was putting

into his body, I suppose,

than what he was doing,

and this was the influence

of Victor Hugo.

He took him down.

We were doing a shooting

with Horace that day,

and I was his only model.

And I said to him point blank,

I said, "halston,

you have to get out of here."

I said, "it's time to leave."

- You told him to leave

the olympic tower.

- "Leave," I said.

"It's time to leave.

I'm leaving.

And if I leave, I have dreams,

and I'm going to live

a beautiful life.

I'm going to get a boat

in the mediterranean.

Do you want to come?

Do you want to leave?"

It was a very spooky moment.

I felt like things

were going like this.

Good-bye.

I felt like

I was saying good-bye to him.

- Mr. Epstein, Carl Epstein,

he reported

to the big companies.

They said, "you have

to let halston go."

- What was the final straw?

What... what happened?

- I think they decided

to pay him to stay home.

- And that was the demise

of halston.

I mean, they were such fools

to... to have done that.

It was one man's war

against halston.

- He couldn't get

the business back.

I mean, the business

was gone forever.

- So he could never use

the name halston again,

is that correct?

- No.

He once made a joke.

He said, "I don't care.

I'm gonna go out

and do my own line.

I'm gonna call it 'guess who.'"

which I thought

was such a riot, you know.

- When whoever

took over halston,

they called up all these girls

that halston

had given clothes to

and asked for the clothes back.

- Then they came actually...

- And they actually came to

the door with a security team.

- And take out all the clothes

that were in her apartment.

- That's awful.

- The company kept being sold,

and it finally ended up

in revlon's hands,

in Ronald perelman's hands.

And Ronald agreed to try

and revive the line again.

- I think a deal

was about to go down

with revlon and perelman,

but then something happened,

and no one knows why.

- Perelman was put off

by halston.

Halston was making

incredible demands.

Like, he wanted

his own private plane.

He wanted $250,000 a year

for orchids,

um, 'cause, I mean,

he just... he lost it.

- I didn't see halston

in a while,

'cause, you know,

studio was closed.

He wasn't going out.

- Why did he stop going out?

- I don't know.

That's what I really don't know.

- He and Victor had split up,

got back together, split up

a hundred times.

- Did he get disillusioned

with the whole scene?

- I don't know what happened.

The business, maybe.

- Things going on.

- Richard, he was doing

a lot of drugs.

- A lot of drugs, yeah.

- Maybe he was sick.

I don't know.

- Yeah.

- And halston always said

to me, "naeem, I'm coming back.

We're gonna be back together,

and this is

what we're gonna do."

We would have

all these design meetings.

But it never came about.

- Oh.

- And slowly his health faded,

and then he went away.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- He never said to me,

"I'm gonna die."

But I knew.

So i-I'd write him letters.

You know, I wanted to stay,

and his brother said to me,

"you can't.

You have to go,

because if you stay,

he'll know that you know

something's really wrong."

And it was very hard to accept.

And it was at a time

when aids was just...

They didn't talk about it.

- I know.

- It was something

to be ashamed of,

which is ludicrous, you know.

- Yeah.

- But that's the way it was,

and those are the facts.

- He went to San Francisco,

and he bought himself

a Rolls-Royce,

and he would be in the car,

and he would drive around

on his own.

And he was not talking calls

from anybody.

He was by himself.

- God, i-i... when he died,

I went nuts.

Really, I went

into such a depression.

Well, I-I didn't think...

I-I knew other people would die,

'cause they were getting old.

But halston? No.

It's very hard to say good-bye

when you're not allowed to,

you know.

- Fashion designer halston,

who created the pillbox hat

worn by Jacqueline Kennedy

at her husband's

presidential inauguration,

died last night

in a San Francisco hospital.

Halston, who was born

Roy halston frowick,

died of aids-related cancer.

He was 57.

- When I came back

to America to live,

I said, "oh, let me

walk past halston's house

and see how I feel about it."

I stood, and I looked up,

and a man came over to me,

and he said, "do you know

the history of this building?

Do you know what happened

in this building?

Do you know who lived here?

Do you know what kind

of exciting people

and exciting parties

they used to have?

That man had no idea

that I was part of that."

I listened to his story,

and it was like

I wasn't even there.

I felt like a ghost.

Smith: What originally

drew me to halston

was the glamour,

the girls,

the haze of cigarette smoke

at 54.

But what I found

was something else...

An artist, a visionary,

a friend loved by many,

and above all,

a true American original.

The '70s really did belong

to halston.

- You can try to imitate,

but an original is original,

and it will never come back.

Memories and pictures

and films

are the best thing to enjoy

what was then.

- I just recently

went to a party in a town house,

and a young girl came in,

and she was wearing

a halston dress.

Her mother had given her

a hammered satin bias column.

And this dress stood out

amongst all the dresses

in the room,

amongst all the new clothes.

This girl's dress,

when she walked in the room,

it was like lights came on.

The strength of halston

is his work.

What speaks is the work,

not what happened to him

at the end of his life.

- There's a kind of

artistic quality to it.

The demise has an artistic,

Byron-esque, Rambo

kind of quality to it.

It's somebody dying young,

burning out, overdoing it.

You know, it's a romantic vision

of things...

Do everything

you're not supposed to do

and then be celebrated

when you're gone.

I'm not so sure

I would look back at this

as a morality tale now

or a cautionary tale.

- Right.

- I think it's halston's tale.

It was his story

the way he wanted to have it go.

- He was a great...

Halston was a great person

and a great designer

and a tragic figure

because of that.

You know, you can't be tragic

unless there's some greatness

there in the first place.