Halston, Bianca Jagger, and Liza Minnelli at Studio 54.Photo: Getty Images/Time & Life Pictures
So Harvey Weinstein bought Halston. The move puts the iconic seventies designer’s name — Halston was best known for his drapey jersey dresses, early adoption of Ultrasuede, and regular spot between Liza and Bianca at Studio 54 — back in the hands of a canny, culturally aware, media-manipulating New Yorker. Things haven’t been going well lately for the once-powerful brand; there have been so many different designers and corporate owners since Roy Halston Frowick died in 1990 that the label is today unrecognizable.
Conveniently, Weinstein’s girlfriend, Georgina Chapman, is a fashion designer (along with her partner Keren Craig, she does Marchesa, which dressed Jennifer Lopez and Emily Rossum at the Oscars this year). Weinstein is already protesting she won’t be involved, and whether her talent measures up to the original’s legacy of real genius — Halston was arguably America’s Yves Saint Laurent — is very much TBD. But Weinstein has already pulled in Tamara Mellon, the socialite business maven who masterminded Jimmy Choo’s ascent to global shoe brand, to engineer the Halston overhaul. And, as any number of Miramax Oscar winners can tell you, Harvey’s a man who knows how to sell something.
—Janet Ozzard
