Marios Schwab is the latest in a very long line of designers with the unenviable task of making Halston relevant and he was off to a shaky start. Halston was synonymous with disco divas, first ladies, movie stars and Studio 54 so where do you go from there when perhaps Halston the brand was more about a time in history than say a silk jumpsuit? I’m not saying the man had no skill just that maybe it was more a moment in time when New York was flooded with cocaine, disco and Andy Warhol. The city must’ve been electric and glamour was at it’s peak.
Schwab needs to be sharper, more focussed, and loading the collection with his own personality and have touches of Halston’s. Look at brands like Givenchy with Ricardo Tisci. There are touches of Hubert de Givenchy but it’s modern and belongs completely to Tisci. This is what turning a brand around is all about.
So the clothes. They were mostly pared back in single block tones of grape, mustard, lipstick and bone. The references were thick and fast: one-sleeved dresses, skin baring slits and billowy disco dresses Diane Von Furstenberg may have once worn. A draped bias-cut dress with a metal clip near the neck was sexy and fun.
So where will people wear these clothes? The Boom Boom Room in the Meatpacking District? Who knows.
Posts
