Simply Halston [Paperback]

There's a sad irony in the glitzy life of fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick, product of a Midwestern Depression childhood with an alcoholic father and the self-made "king of New York night life." Halston, whose clean-cut, all-American style was mass-marketed through J. C. Penney, was hooked on cocaine, booze and Quaaludes and had a nasty anti-Semitic streak, as portrayed here. As his fame peaked, he became increasingly paranoid, capricious and hot-tempered, according to Gaines, author of a Beatles biography ( The Love You Make ). Halston, at the height of his fame, was "almost a caricature of a sissy homosexual fashion designer, haughty and superficial," we are told. There are candid details of his coked-out Venezuelan window-dresser lover, his endless stream of call boys, business reversals, cavortings with the rich and beautiful (Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli et al.) and his death from AIDS in 1990 at the age of 57. Alternately fawning and damning, this frantic biography has a hollow center where a man should be. Photos. First serial to Vanity Fair.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

When Roy Halston Frowick died on March 26, 1990, the society pages and the world of haute couture lost one of their stars. Gaines has been indefatigable in collecting gossip for his account of the glamorous but dissipated life of the man best known for having dressed many fashionable women, such as Jacqueline Onassis, Liza Minelli, Elizabeth Taylor, and Martha Graham. There is nothing edifying in this expose of the unpleasant high jinks of Halston and his fellow celebrities, nor is any purpose served by spelling out the grim details of his death from Kaposi's sarcoma, a complication of AIDS. It is, however, interesting to read of Halston's self-promotion and marketing genius, as he made his leap from window dresser in Chicago to the top of cafe society in Manhattan. A possible choice for the popular reading sections of public libraries. (Photographs not seen.)-- Margarete Gross, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A riveting tale of sex, drugs, and the pillbox hat as Gaines (Heroes and Villains, 1986) details the rise and fall of a talented designer turned disco denizen. Roy Halston Frowick moved to Chicago at age 20 from Des Moines and with the backing of his hairdresser-lover started a millinery business that quickly gained a local following. Offered a job in New York by the famous Lilly Dache, Halston soon was installed at Bergdorf's, selling hats and charming celebrity customers (including Jacqueline Kennedy, who wore his pillbox hat for the inauguration). As the 60's progressed, Halston moved over to designing ready-to-wear. His showroom became a gathering place for the famous, and his simple, elegant clothes became all the rage, until a 1972 Newsweek cover named him America's ``premier fashion designer.'' In 1973, he sold his business to Norton Simon Industries, which created an extremely successful fragrance. But as the 70's wore on, the licensing ventures languished as Halston allegedly began to use cocaine heavily, getting in to work at noon after nights at Studio 54. When Norton Simon was taken over, the Halston division was sold several times to corporations less tolerant of the designer's disregard for the bottom line, and finally Halston himself was banished from his own offices, with others producing under the Halston name. In March 1990, the designer died of AIDS. Jam-packed with sordid detail (prostitutes, anonymous sex in Central Park, a destructive long-term lover named Victor Hugo) and celebrities (Liza, Andy, Bianca): reading this is like mainlining 70's gossip. In all: a sad story of talent gone astray and a fascinating, disturbing portrait of the imaginative decadence of the disco era. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A biography of the late fashion design describes his Midwestern beginnings, his creation of Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hat, his hold on the fashion world of the 1970s, his drug use, and his tragic death. Reprint. K. NYT.