How To Dress Like a Halstonette
Thanks to the new Halston series by Netflix, attention is back on one of American fashion’s most influential and stylish designers. His cabine of models, dubbed the Halstonettes, offer more than timely inspiration.
These days, few things do more to help revive a collective interest and fascination in a fashion figure from the past than a Netflix original. That’s certainly the case with designer Roy Halston Frowick, one of the biggest American designers in the '70s that helped put the country on a similar level as the bigwigs of Parisian haute couture.
A still from Netflix's series Halston, now available to stream.
Key to the Halston look is an elevation of American sportswear. That means, even in the case of cashmere wrap dresses and caftans, that there’s a thread of sportiness and ease that runs throughout. You’ll notice, too, that Halston was not a designer who cavorted with prints: instead, the obsessions are with cut, silhouette and sensuous draping.
Elsa Peretti modelling in a Halston show in the '70s, wearing her own jewellery designs for Tiffany & Co.
The women who embodied this look best were a group of house models, or a cabine, or, as the editor Andre Leon Talley dubbed them, the Halstonettes. This fabulous group, consisting of names like Liza Minelli, Pat Cleveland, Elsa Peretti and Anjelica Huston, were dressed head to toe in Halston, and followed the designer around the world to help promote both the brand and American fashion.
There was the trip to the Great Wall in China, and even more legendarily, the Battle of Versailles where French couturiers and American designers duked it out in a battle of fashion. On all these occasions, the Halstonettes, dressed to the nines and embarking on international travel, were some of the earliest precursors to jet-set style. Or, what we might know today as airport fashion.
Pat Cleveland, played by Dilone in the show, models a Halston look at the designer's Olympic Tower headquarters.
The big ideas behind the Halston look have persevered and today, it’s easy to see the influences in fashion designers the world over. Ironically, even French brands these days have taken elements of the look on board.
Here’s how, with a few simple pieces and styling tricks, to dress like a Halstonette.
A key fabric to know: cashmere. In Halston's own designs, he often used cashmere with a blend with silk to achieve the sensuousness of his cuts. Few do it better these days than Tom Ford.
Key to the cashmere wardrobe: an easy wrap to throw on and go.
Look for draped shapes and volumes like this one from British knitwear designer Madeleine Thompson.
Part of what made Halston's designs so desirable was a sharp focus on sporty, American minimalism. Think polo necks sans buttons or detail. In the realm of cashmere, the house of Loro Piana is hard to beat.
Halston was not a designer known for prints. When the occasion for more vibrancy called, the designer often turned to colour. Consider this acid yellow number by Bottega Veneta.
When it comes to evening, look for sinuous draped shapes with sequinned embellishment. This one from New York brand Retrofete, with its sash belt detail, hits the right note.
It might surprise you that a lot of Daniel Lee's designs for Bottega Veneta have a resonance with Halston signatures. Case in point: this low-key glamorous dress in lustrous rayon, finished with a halter neckline – another one of Halston's design signatures.
If you're thinking of a separate in the realm of glamour, you can't do much better than this beige – almost golden – skirt from Altuzarra that's embroidered all over with tiny sequins. The knitted construction also means you get the clingy, body-hugging fit that's consistent in Halston's oeuvre.
Very important for the Halston look: blousy caftans. While the designer himself might not have been big on print, this soft and simple one by Belgian master Dries Van Noten could surely pass muster.
Closer to the realm of plush cashmere is this very soft alpaca blend caftan from London minimalist label Joseph. Note that, though in a heavier fabric, opt for roomy and breezy cuts to preserve the look.
Halston's choice of sunglasses tended to hew oversized, and shield-like in shape. Think an Aviator shape, like this pair from Saint Laurent, made large.
These frames, with an aviator shape, just the right amount of oversized and in cool, suave black metal, hits all the right notes.
One of Halston's greatest contributions to fashion history was his use of Ultrasuede. The most famous implementation of it was in the series of shirt dresses he created, a legacy that has endured and found its way into the work of the American designer Joseph Altuzarra.
And who could forget the inimitable Elsa Peretti. The jewellery designer was one of the most important women in Halston's life, modelling in his shows and even designing the revolutionary bottle of his perfume. This Bone Cuff, perhaps Peretti's most emblematic and iconic design, is symbolic of both designers and their era.
Along similar lines as Elsa Peretti's biomorphic style of jewellery design, try this belt by Bottega Veneta that features a gold-tone loop designed for the leather strips to be knotted around.