Halston with friends at Studio 54American fashion designer Halston (center) with model Bianca Jagger (left) and actress and singer Liza Minnelli, 1978.
Halston (born April 23, 1932, Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.—died March 26, 1990, San Francisco, California) was an American designer of elegant fashions with a streamlined look. He was widely considered the first superstar designer in the United States, and his clothing defined 1970s American fashion.
Halston studied at Indiana University and the Art Institute of Chicago and operated a millinery shop in Chicago before joining milliner Lilly Daché in New York City. In 1959 he became a milliner for Bergdorf Goodman. In 1966 he expanded his line into clothes, and in 1968 he began his own couture house, which catered to celebrities. Halston won the Coty American Fashion Critics “Winnie” awards for having the most influence on fashion in 1971 and 1972. His famous clientele included Liza Minnelli and Elizabeth Taylor, and his clothing became associated with discotheques, especially Studio 54, where the designer was a frequent guest.
In 1973 Halston sold his business to the Norton Simon conglomerate for $16 million but continued as principal designer. He later signed (1982) a contract to design an affordable clothing line for the mass retailer J.C. Penney. Although such deals subsequently became common in the fashion industry, it was unprecedented at the time and severely damaged his career. In 1984 he was fired from his namesake business, and, beginning that year, he tried unsuccessfully to buy back the company.
Halston’s simple yet chic designs included Ultrasuede shirtwaist dresses, tailored suits, traditional chiffon and crepe evening dresses, cashmere sweater sets, tunics, slinky halter dresses, and knitted cape-stoles. His later creations were limited to costumes for Martha Graham’s dance company.
In 1990 Halston moved to San Francisco, and later that year he died from AIDS-related complications. The documentary Halston was released in 2019.
fashion industry, multibillion-dollar global enterprise devoted to the business of making and selling clothes. Some observers distinguish between the fashion industry (which makes “high fashion”) and the apparel industry (which makes ordinary clothes or “mass fashion”), but by the 1970s the boundaries between them had blurred. Fashion is best defined simply as the style or styles of clothing and accessories worn at any given time by groups of people. There may appear to be differences between the expensive designer fashions shown on the runways of Paris or New York and the mass-produced sportswear and street styles sold in malls and markets around the world. However, the fashion industry encompasses the design, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, retailing, advertising, and promotion of all types of apparel (men’s, women’s, and children’s) from the most rarefied and expensive haute couture (literally, “high sewing”) and designer fashions to ordinary everyday clothing—from couture ball gowns to casual sweatpants. Sometimes the broader term “fashion industries” is used to refer to myriad industries and services that employ millions of people internationally.
Jacques Doucet: woman's evening coatFrench woman's evening coat made of wool, silk, and mink fur trim, an example of Belle Epoque style, designed by Jacques Doucet, 1902; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
The fashion industry is a product of the modern age. Prior to the mid-19th century, virtually all clothing was handmade for individuals, either as home production or on order from dressmakers and tailors. By the beginning of the 20th century—with the rise of new technologies such as the sewing machine, the rise of global capitalism and the development of the factory system of production, and the proliferation of retail outlets such as department stores—clothing had increasingly come to be mass-produced in standard sizes and sold at fixed prices. Although the fashion industry developed first in Europe and America, today it is an international and highly globalized industry, with clothing often designed in one country, manufactured in another, and sold in a third. For example, an American fashion company might source fabric in China and have the clothes manufactured in Vietnam, finished in Italy, and shipped to a warehouse in the United States for distribution to retail outlets internationally. The fashion industry has long been one of the largest employers in the United States, and it remains so in the 21st century. However, employment declined considerably as production increasingly moved overseas, especially to China. Because data on the fashion industry typically are reported for national economies and expressed in terms of the industry’s many separate sectors, aggregate figures for world production of textiles and clothing are difficult to obtain. However, by any measure, the industry inarguably accounts for a significant share of world economic output.
The fashion industry consists of four levels: the production of raw materials, principally fibres and textiles but also leather and fur; the production of fashion goods by designers, manufacturers, contractors, and others; retail sales; and various forms of advertising and promotion. These levels consist of many separate but interdependent sectors, all of which are devoted to the goal of satisfying consumer demand for apparel under conditions that enable participants in the industry to operate at a profit.
Most fashions are made from textiles. The partial automation of the spinning and weaving of wool, cotton, and other natural fibres was one of the first accomplishments of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. In the 21st century those processes are highly automated and carried out by computer-controlled high-speed machinery. A large sector of the textile industry produces fabrics for use in apparel. Both natural fibres (such as wool, cotton, silk, and linen) and synthetic fibres (such as nylon, acrylic, and polyester) are used. A growing interest in sustainable fashion (or “eco-fashion”) led to greater use of environmentally friendly fibres, such as hemp. High-tech synthetic fabrics confer such properties as moisture wicking (e.g., Coolmax), stain resistance (e.g., 303 High Tech Fabric Guard), retention or dissipation of body heat, and protection against fire, weapons (e.g., Kevlar), cold (e.g., Thinsulate), ultraviolet radiation (Solarweave), and other hazards. Fabrics are produced with a wide range of effects through dyeing, weaving, printing, and other manufacturing and finishing processes. Together with fashion forecasters, textile manufacturers work well in advance of the apparel production cycle to create fabrics with colours, textures, and other qualities that anticipate consumer demand.
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