i had on my schedule to pencil in some time to watch “halston” on netflix.
it stars ewan mcgregor,
who plays the iconic fashion designer,
and was executive produced by ryan murphy.
when i was moonlighting as a freelance stylist at fashion week,
i did one of his shows.
see:
shout out to the ones who put me on to that.
anyhoo,
i took three important tidbits from the show…
1. Trauma will keep you stuck in one place as you’re moving towards your goals.
halston’s life was watching his mother being abused by his father as a kid.
he would comfort her by making fashion-inspired things,
like putting feathers on one of her hats,
to make her feel better.
that is where he learned to give a feeling to his creativity.
He wanted women to FEEL something.
in turn,
she gave him encouragement and made him feel like the star that he was,
but he wanted the same love from his abusive father as well.
this is what led him to feelings of acceptance and insecurity in his career,
but he still had a huge ego that he was everything that held him back.
it made him feel he was owed something rather than working hard for it.
2. The wrong person WILL ruin your life (like, frfr)
victor hugo ruined halston’s life.
he was an escort with big dreams and a bigger dick.
halston,
who was searching for love,
gave too much rope for victor to run wild.
victor got him hooked on drugs,
sex,
and partying.
he manipulated halston into being in his world.
after all halston did for him,
and even loved him,
that whore still wanted to blackmail and ruin him.
halston should have kept him as someone to fuck when he was horny.
foxhole:
Keep your sex and professional lives separate,
especially if you’re the star.
you fuck the big dicks; don’t let them end up fucking you.
same for my bi males and pussy.
pussy has brought down many powerful males.
3. Never sign something without reading it first.
a no brainer,
right?
halston signed his whole life away while trusting a businessman to protect him.
when halston couldn’t return the investment any longer,
things started to go south and the business turned on him.
when he was doing well,
he had the business on their knees.
when shit went south,
he didn’t have any more creative leeway to use against them.
if you’re gonna keep people on their knees,
you always be constantly on your shit.
halston let drugs,
fucking,
and partying fuck him up.
halston died without owning his name.
thoughts dump:
Liza Minnelli reminded him of his mother which is why he was so enamored by her
Eliza was attracted to Halston and really did have his best interest
Once Halston slicked his hair back and put that bronzer on, the juice was loose.
Victor absolutely gave Halston HIV but he was doing a lot of reckless fuckin’ himself
Why would even let that common whore be running wild in his professional life like that?
He should have stayed with ED but I suspect Ed didn’t fuck his brains out like Victor
Halton’s should have done exclusive limited-edition jeans when the businessman told him
The businessman was tired of Halston’s shit and was ready to part ways
If he didn’t die of HIV then he woulda died from lung cancer from all the cigarette smoking
I was obsessed with watching and researching the Studio 54 era
Is it me or did Ewan Mcgregor sound like Kevin Spacey in his portrayal of Halston?
———–
it was a really good 5 episode docu-series.
they go by quickly and help you learn some stuff about halston.
i loved his sassiness at times,
but when he started turning on people who started with him:
that’s when he started annoying me and i lost sympathy.
check it out foxhole and lemme know your thoughts.
“halston” is on netflix right now.
Ok Jamari so you sent me to watch Halston and I agree with your comments. Yes he was reckless, yes he was trapped by Hugo’s big dick and yes he burned his bridges for the true friends he had in his life. Be careful though, its the director’s portrayal and his perspective. I am sure people who were there would have a slightly different perception of what actually happened. But the director captured the lifestyle of the era: the Studio 54 Sodom and Gomorrah era and yes the club was a popular spot for cocaine sniffing, drug pushing, sex addicts. The chain smoking in the movie was also spot on. No one spoke, it seems, without taking a puff. It was an age of excess and Halston was living his best life.
Was it only me who thought the lady that climbed through the AC to get into the club was a Bette Middler lookalike ? A pity she died as I thought the movie was tacitly introducing Better at the start of her beginnings to fame.
As I watched the movie I couldn’t help but remember my friends that died because of Aids and the impact it had on so many lives- including mine. To this day I do not, I repeat, DO NOT do bare back, Fuck no! Get the fuck outta my life with that shit! Yes I remember every pain, every hospital visit, every emaciated body, every famous last words of regret from everyone that died and I often wonder what if I had done the same, I would have been a statistic. Halston was no different and he accepted his fate. He knew his life would one day catch up with him and sadly he died alone. He died a lonely man with only his memories to keep his wings wide. The closing scene was beautifully done and with the haunting song of the Cocteau Twins – Pearly Dewdrops Drop, you could not feel more sad for such a talent to have lost everything , including his own name.
It was Midler’s daughter
I watched both the series and the documentary and both are very good. Jamari, you hit all the key points. “The juice was loose” is so perfect! I also felt so bad for Ed, who wanted a more conventional relationship, but Halston fatefully kicked him to the side, as he did others who had helped him rise to the top, and the end wasn’t pretty. I think your comments about that foundational trauma are key; the scene where those scents bring him back to his childhood traumas and make him cry was so on point and telling. He was an amazing talent, an artist with a vision and not a hack, and I was glad to see that the series did capture that important aspect of who he was.
Halston was an incredible talent. He really designed with the women in mind. He was one of the first fashion designers to use black models in his show (Bethann Hardison, mother of Kadeem, was referenced in the bio series) and to design for curvy and overweight women.
But he was absolute trash in how he treated people. He tossed the brother aside for rent boy dick that he elevated to prominence and THAT was his downfall. I didn’t like him at all but his eye for fashion and his prodigious talent cannot be denied.
I agree with you. I haven’t watched the Netflix show . I read books and saw the documentary you referenced. He was a fashion genius, but immensely fake and fucked up.
I watched the Netflix show and I loved it. But I also watched the Halston Documentary that is on Amazon Prime. That documentary goes more in depth about what happened to his company. I think also got that this was a different time period. It can be very difficult to look through the documentary with 2021 eyes. After watching both shows though, I started to wonder if allot of other clothing designers go through the same thing. A corporation owning your name while your creativity and reputation is is at risk.
Watched it and had all the same thoughts and questions you did, Jamari. However, I didn’t like it as much as I think some of you guys did. I felt some kinda way over his seeming obsession with black dick…
I read the Halston biography and Walking With The Muses by Legendary Pat Cleveland. Pat and I are each born June 23. Halston should have stuck with the African American window dresser he met at Fire Island when he was designing hats for Hattie Carnegie.
Victor was just someone who should have indeed been kept on the sideline of the sideline; just a one fuck grimy lay. New York was full of big dicks. He would have found, well apparently did find, many others. But drugs and someone providing access to more drugs is a aphrodisiac in itself. Combined with the sense of entitlement and faux hateur that Halston developed & possessed, shinola turned to shit real quick.
I read the Robert Mapplethorpe bio; different person same circumstance and similar fate. Both dinge queens. When Halston died, I was living in SF during the hopeless early days of AIDS. According to the book, nobody knows where Hugo really died. Was Victor Hugo his real name? Sterling St. Jacques disappeared into oblivion too. Studio 54 just swallowed people and creative genius like a giant sinkhole.
The aftermath of Studio 54 was crazy. People just disappeared randomly in the 80s from that era. Sterling St. Jacques has always fascinated me and his true disappearance. He’s by far one of the best looking men I had ever seen but so much craziness during that era spiraled him into obscurity that no one even knows when he even died. True elusiveness.
Hey
Hulu has a fantastic Bio/Movie on “Mapplethorpe ” that is a very good watch!. I too love any information of these Talented Gay Men who left too soon. I cant wait for Patrick Kelly and Willi Smith to come to the big screen. So many people are left in the dark on this important men who were here and paved the way for all of us( sigh)
Black Is Beautiful
After I read the Mapplethorpe book in January, I threw it in the trash. I remember when Senator Jesse Helms was pissing up a tree of RM’ s photographs. RM was obsessed with Milton Moore and that mans beautiful dick. Moore is from West Tennessee as am I. From a little town called Jackson. I trashed that book because Mapplethorpe was just garbage to me. The fetishistic exploiting of Black men- the abuse heaped upon Milton Moore was too much. The shit eating, piss drinking is de rigueur in certain subsets; however the racism from this queen and her ilk outweighs any admiration for the art. Joe Simmons nor Milton Moore benefitted financially from those photos. Joe died from AIDS & Moore eventually murdered someone. Patrick K ad Willi Smith deserve bio- films, but don’t hold your breath. That’s a great idea though.
Joe was one of the most beautiful man I have ever seen I did not like the way RM treated him. it seems like he did the same thing to Milton.Patrick or Will deserve their own stories…but I agree it will not happeh=n
I read Ed became a fashion notable in his in right.
^peep that karma.
we love to see it.
he treated ed like shit for that dusty prostitute.
I have to watch it. You better preach you’re absolutely right.
^ ❤️❤️❤️❤️
This was one of the best shows on Netflix in a while. I have always been fascinated by Halston . I have read books and have viewed documentaries and was happy with this series.
As always Jamari, you picked up some very good points. We can all learn a lot from this.
^thank you!!!
it made me look beyond and see what else was under the surface!