Last night marked the U.S premiere of the eagerly awaited Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston at California’s LACMA (it was shown earlier this month at Tribeca). The film documents both the designer’s work and the hedonistic lifestyle of which he was the epitome.
Though as much as the documentary focuses on the Halston heydey of studio 54 and the glamour which surrounded it, Ultrasuede also tentatively charts the designer’s fall and his death at the age of 57 due to complications from AIDS. The film’s creator, Whitney Sudler-Smith, hopes Ultrasuede will “get people to look beyond the years of partying at Studio 54, and really see what a great genius this man was: He put America on the map fashion-wise, and was a true artist, more than anything else.”
Halston’s story is told in the film by those who knew him best, a series of interviews feature former Halston models Angelica Houston and Pat Cleveland, Vogue’s Andre Leon Talley, longtime friend Liza Minelli, designer Dianne von Furstenberg and protege Ralph Rucci.
Isabelle Wright