Netflix’s Halston: what really happened – the real life story behind the hit miniseries’ 9 key scenes

May 22 , 2021

This combination of photos shows actor Ewan McGregor portraying fashion designer Halston, left, and Halston photographed in his New York showroom on July 9, 1975. A new series about the fashion designer, “Halston,” premieres Friday on Netflix. (Netflix via AP, left, and AP Photo)

Elizabeth Taylor, Bianca Jagger and Liza Minnelli all championed his designs – but it was Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat that made Roy Halston Frowick famous

The popularity of the shirtdress, kaftan and Ultrasuede can all be credited to Halston’s era-defining 70s designs – but how accurate is Netflix’s storytelling?

Halston, the mononymous American fashion designer whose stripped-back, body-freeing take on luxury – kaftans, halter dresses and acres of Ultrasuede – was a defining look of the 70s, continues to fascinate.

Designer Roy Halston Frowick in the documentary Halston, directed by Frederic Tcheng. Photo: Handout

Maybe that’s because his career, now more than three decades in the rear-view mirror, still feels so contemporary: both in terms of his aesthetic – riffs on his shirtdress are everywhere and when haven’t kaftans been a thing? – and his business strategy, including the once-novel concepts of brand extensions and diffusion lines. Or maybe it’s because the dramatic arc of his career from anonymity to high-flying celebrity designer to scandal-page fodder makes him seem like a victim of Me Decade cancel culture. Whatever the reason, Halston’s life seems to be perennially ripe for exploration in books and documentaries. And now, a five-part miniseries.

This image released by Netflix shows Ewan McGregor in a scene from Halston. Photo: Netflix via AP

Halston, which premiered recently on Netflix, is a passion project 20-some years in the making for executive producer and director Daniel Minahan, who has long held a fascination with the New York scene inhabited by Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, Halston and Victor Hugo.

Halston laughs with three of his models at the Iranian Embassy in Washington, before the start of a benefit fashion show, in 1977. Photo: AP

“I read it and I was so struck by it that I started reading other things about Halston and this world,” Minahan said. “The hook for me was this idea of someone coming to New York, creating this made-up name, building it into an empire and then being stripped of his name and company – he couldn’t be Halston any more. And to me that was very rich. It seemed like a really archetypal American story.”

Turning it into a five-part series allowed the narrative to stretch over multiple periods of Halston’s life, Minahan said.

David Pittu as Joe Eula, from left, Ewan McGregor as Halston, Krysta Rodriguez as Liza Minnelli and Rebecca Dayan as Elsa Peretti in a scene from Halston. Photo: Netflix via AP

“My idea was to structure it around all the different collections or creations of Halston,” Minahan said. “So each episode is, like, the first collection, or it’s the creation of the fragrance, or it’s the Battle of Versailles, or the JCPenney collection, to give us an opportunity to show his creative process and his creative genius and then all of the maelstrom of the drama around him.”

Here’s what you’ll see – and how it helped shape the brand, and the life, of the man portrayed in the Netflix miniseries by Ewan McGregor.