Halston Fashion Illustrations from Halston Style Exhibit



This weekend I, like most fashion lovers, devoured the new 5-part mini series Halston that premiered on Netflix. To my pleasant surprise the series was peppered with Halston fashion illustrations and it got me thinking about Halston Style, an exhibit I went to 4 years ago, in April of 2017 at the Nassau County Museum of Art. (Side note: a museum I actually volunteered at as a docent, many moons ago in my high school years!) I've been to countless fashion designer retrospectives throughout the years but this one is engrained in my head, as it had hands down the most fashion illustrations of any I'd ever even been to and illustrated by the likes of Halston, Steven Sprouse, Joe Eula (Halston Creative Dir. of 10+ years), and Andy Warhol. The collection of illustrations, garments, iconic designs like Jackie Kennedy's inaugural Halston designed pillbox hat (shown below), personal notes and memorabilia from a life long fashion career was curated from Halston's personal archive which he bestowed upon his neice Lesley Frowick with the directive to write a book "because she would have everything she needed to tell his story. She wrote the book, after 25 years, but always felt a companion exhibit was necessary to share Halston's style and sensibilities given the rich volumes he left behind." 
Halston was "ahead of his time in more ways than one, he considered all body types, his designs flattering all ages and sizes. He recruited plus sized vaudevillian Pat Ast to model and be a member of his entourage. Although he was trained in fashion illustration at the Chicago Art Institute, within a few short years he hired Steven Sprouse as official fashion illustrator. Sprouse worked by his side for a few years before making his own mark on the fashion world. Then came Joe Eula [a featured character in the Netflix series] and fashion illustrator extraordinaire, whose gossamer brush strokes brought Halston's flowing fabrics to life in full color." 
As the illustrations are all for Halston they are not signed by the different fashion illustrators that may have penned them, which is typical of any fashion house. But all have a very similar aesthetic: bold confident thick markered lines, filled in with solid washes of color and the occasional pattern. Halston figures are almost always faceless given sometimes a lip and once in a while an eye, but always have a air of personality and elegance to their stance and poses. 
The exhibit took up the entire museum, each gallery filled with a different era of Halston's career. His beautifully design garments on mannequins in the centers of the rooms, sketches lining the walls, countless orchids, and timelines of his career and personal notes from the likes of Liza Minnelli, Lee Radziwill, Beverly Johnson and Elizabeth Taylor in the corridors. It was such a treat to revisit my camera roll and this exhibit again. I hope you enjoyed the Halston fashion illustrations I chose to spotlight, because I have to tell you, there were many to choose from! Who knows, maybe the popularity of the series will have them put the exhibit on again! Wouldn't that be amazing. But in case that doesn't happen you could always pick up Lesley's
book
(Quotes taken from Halston Style exhibition at Nassau County Museum of Art) 

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