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Dressed: The History of Fashion
A Life Lived in Fashion with Halston Model, Muse and Archivist Chris Royer, Part I (Dressed Classic)
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This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Checking off the boxes on your to do list is a great feeling. And when it comes to checking off coverage, a State Farm agent can help you choose an option that's right for you. Whether you prefer talking in person, on the phone or using the award winning app, it's nice knowing you have help finding coverage that best fits your needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there Please enjoy one of our favorite episodes from the Dressed archive of over 500 plus shows the history of Fashion is a production of dressed media. With over 8 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day we all get dressed welcome.
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To Dressed the History of Fashion, a podcast that explores the who, what, when? Of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary.
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Dress listeners. We are all familiar with Halston, right? April not only was he one of the most influential and important designers of the 20th century, he was arguably the first celebrity American designer and his personal life and career have earned him numero accolades, books, exhibitions and scrutiny that continues into this very day.
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Halston rose to international acclaim and success in the 1970s, a fashion era that he was beyond integral in defining with his sleek, sexy designs worn by any number of celebrity clientele and of course his famous entourage of models and muses who Andre Leon Talley famously dubbed the Halstanettes. And we have already of course had the pleasure of talking to one Halstanette on the show twice now, Pat Cleveland, who transported us back to the magical fashion dreamscape of the 1970s and today we are so excited to talk to another Halston, Chris Royer.
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And it is important to remember that behind every great designer is a team of talented people, right, tasked with bringing that designer's vision to life. And Halston was really no exception. More than a model, Chris actually came to work for Halston as a trained fashion designer and she quickly became an integral part of Halston's in house creative team, working alongside Joel Yula and Elsa Peretti. And as we will learn in this two part episode after Halston's death, Chris has also been instrumental in keeping his legacy alive.
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This is true because for the past 30 years Chris has been a fashion historian, advisor and private collector of Halston Designs. She has consulted on numerous Halston exhibitions, books, films and projects for museums and has participated in loan clothing designs and artwork for numerous projects. Some of these projects include the Brooklyn Museum's Studio 1954 Night Magic traveling exhibition, the 2019 A&E documentary Halston and also the 2021 Ryan Murphy produced Netflix series Halston. And we are so pleased to welcome her to the show. Chris, thank you for joining us on Dressed.
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Chris, welcome to Dressed. I am so excited to talk to you today.
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C
So am I, Cassidy, Good to hear your voice.
- [03:29]
A
Yeah, it's lovely to speak to you. I'm so excited to talk to you about your life, your career. And first, I just want to learn a little bit more about you and your formative relationship with fashion. I love to ask guests this question about if you have an earliest memory of clothing or the power of fashion that you'd like to share with us.
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C
Sure. Well, my earliest influences of design and fashion were really coming from my grandmother and my mother. Actually, my mother just turned 101 in December. Wow. And she is still a fashion, fashionista. She loves clothing. She still is always looking for the best shapes for herself in her lifestyle today, you know, fabulous. But my grandmother was extraordinarily stylish and she was very involved with her sisters. They actually worked under Neiman Marcus and sewing things and they immigrated from Hungary. And my grandmother ended up marrying my grandfather who was Mexican. So my grandfather who was a Mexican divorce lawyer and he entered a lot of celebrities. So their world was consisted of a lot of entertaining and knowing people in that, that world of glamour. So she, she really knew her sense of style. And my mother is a classic beauty and she as well as I were the ones that bought Halston and developed my private collection. But still 101 and still loves, loves it. The influence, what we all did at that time, which is sort of interesting, we all, my grandmother, my mother and myself, we all read Vogue. It was like through all those generations, we love Vogue. We still read Vogue. You know, we. But I think it's something that within each group, it's what Vogue was represented in the glamour and creating and understanding the style of clothing and the fantasy of it that's, that's was so important to all of us. I also read Seventeen and Mademoiselle because Mademoiselle was more of a. They were both younger, you know, and Mademoiselle was really sort of like a link chic but downtown ish look for college kids and stuff like that. But Vogue was the best, you know.
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Oh yeah. And it's an entry point for so many people who've come on the podcast for myself, I know. And so many of our listeners, I'm sure, because it's just such an easy entry, right. You subscribe, you receive it, and then you just Every month, get to escape into this kind of fantasy world of fashion. Something that you, of course, turned into this incredible career. Can you tell us a little bit how you became or decided to pursue fashion design at Pratt Institute in New York?
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C
Sure, sure. Well, I attended Pratt. My mother went to Pratt Institute, and she basically was in design. She would do. She was. They considered that industrial design, but it was more fabric designs and textiles. I attended Pratt Institute and majored in design, clothing and everything. And actually, my first job came through Pratt while I was in school. And. And my dean, Nina Curtis, she. She was amazing. She was just amazing lady. She would dress very much like Audrey Hepburn in those chic little dresses. But she decided that she recommended me for design and modeling project for De Beers Mines Diamond Company at that point. And they would do regular ads on diamonds and fantasy of diamonds and jewelry and everything.
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And.
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C
But they wanted to do a project that would be entailing a younger design student, myself, create design jewelry using diamonds for my age group. And then I would style it with contemporary clothes that were from that time period. So it was a great job. I loved it, and they loved it because I gave them more ideas over how I would handle, you know, diamonds for my lifestyle at that point. And it was great. So that's sort of like I got a full dose of going in and working with people, tech people, as well as marketing people, and then also getting into the styling and making sure the photographs and things looked exactly the way the design should be represented. So it was a great learning curve in regards to that as well as Pratt, because Pratt was a very strict school. It's very well known, but Pratt was a very strict school in regards to the design, because the students that attended there was one professor, Mr. Ono, who basically, once you passed through his class, you knew how to drape and cut, and you had a full understanding of what was behind the look and the process of creating that silhouette in clothing. And also, Halston always. Basically, a lot of Halston's staff in the 70s came from prep because he needed people that really understood pattern making and draping.
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Wow.
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And so you really did get this kind of foundational education, as you just attested to, in fashion design and fashion construction and were, by all accounts, on, you know, this path to becoming a fashion designer. But then you were discovered as a model. Can you tell us about how you were discovered as a model? This is such a fabulous story.
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C
Yeah, well, you know, Mademoiselle was basically focusing on girls that went to college and that had style and young people of that 20 to maybe 30 year age group, and they would go to the colleges and pick certain students and highlight them in their magazine. And so I was discovered by Mama Zelle and they did an article on me called she Got Style. So once I did the shooting with Gusta Peterson. And what's really interesting is my editor at that time for Mademoiselle was Debbie Turboville.
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A
Wow.
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C
Photographer of the bathhouse scenes. Years later, became my friend. Yeah. And she was. She was the editor for the layout for Madmozel. Wow. And they would encourage you to be like a guest editor for the magazine and everything. It was. It was like you're building your stepping stone that you would eventually work for Vogue. It's funny, because my New York agent, because they immediately sent me to Wilhelmina to represent me for modeling purposes. And I'm like, oh, okay. And so Willie, I adored because she was like, how many covers did she. I'm talking to a legend, you know, who's going to represent me in modeling. And she did how many Vogue covers? And she was the kindest and sweetest woman. She was. She would help you with your makeup because she was an expert. During the early days, all those models did their own makeup. They did not have the makeup artist.
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Right.
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That we know about nowadays. So Willie decided, you know, she obviously with working at Harper's, but more at Vogue. She worked with Halston extensively and they had become very close friends. And so she basically sent the article and set up a go see, which was an appointment to see. To meet him and his staff. And she knew my background, my love for design. She knew all about that. And so since I had the background in design, I would say Willie, in her own words, said we would be a perfect match. So go up there and meet them. So. So I did. And one more thing about Willie is the fact that I learned that almost all of Halston's models in his group were basically from Wilhelmina. So they. They definitely knew how to choose the girls and they had the trust between them. So anyway, so I went back to Halt. So I went up to Halston Limited, which was located on 68th street and Madison Avenue in New York. And I entered the salon on the third floor, which was. It was incredible. It was so chic and beautiful. I mean, the walls were this ivory color, like with this slight touch of pink in it. So it was very. It just glowed. And the. The sofas were cream suede color. And those were placed in a center part of the salon. There were these huge, beautiful orchid plants. And then you'd have the incredible Rigo candles, which had the green scent into it, which was very sexy and sensual, but clean. It was amazing candle scent, which created the environment. And then in the background you would hear this soft Brazilian samba music. It was fantastic.
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Yeah.
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And for me, wow, where am I? You know, because you, it pulled you out of New York, which was basically sort of dirty, grungy and loud. And then you came up to the salon and it became this, this place of serenity and elegance and the shades of allow beautiful sunlight. And so it just was an, an incredible oasis away from New York, New York City. I enter and I'm like, whoa, this is incredible. So after, after I got over the visual beauty of the. The salon, I. I noticed that on one of the couches was this very good looking man with a black turtleneck and pants. And I assumed he was Halston's assistant. And I said, hi, I'm Chris Royer. And he said, we know, so let's talk a bit and try on some clothing. And I'm like, we do know. Well, whoa, okay. So trying on the clothing was so exciting, and I love the clothes and I modeled in them, you know, and he loved it. So we talked more on design, on London, design on design in New York, and we got very comfortable in conversing with each other. So I started asking him about questions about Halston. Now my first question was, how old is Halston? And his response was, old enough. And I'm like going, oh. And so my next question was, does Halston have a sense of humor? And he responded, yes, why? So I responded, well, I've been here for over an hour, and I assume I got the job. And he nodded, yes, you did. So I said, I have another question, you know, and he says, okay. So I said, well, since I have design training from Pratt and I got the job of modeling, but could I eventually evolve into working with the Halston design team? And I thought if I don't ask it, I won't know. And he says, right, well, yes, once again, yes. And I'm like going, whoa, wow. It's like, this is great. So I said, okay. So I, I just, I just have one more quick question. Just one more. And he said, yes. And I said, well, since you and I get along so well, could you ask Carlson if we could work together? And his response was, yes. And I'm like, fearless, you know, so I'm like, in this like unbelievable state of happiness. And then all of a sudden I hear this response from another assistant. Who came into the room and he said, halston, Jackie Onassis is here for her fitting. I'm going. I froze. I was like, oh, my God. He must be hiding behind the screens. He's. He's been listening in our conversation because that's what a lot of times the designers would do. They didn't want to reveal themselves. They just wanted to hear the model and then later be introduced to them. I was like. So I started looking around to see, you know, where was Halston. And then all of a sudden, like, this chill came in. Boom. And I'm like going, oh, my God. I turned to the sofa, realized the man in the black turtleneck and black pants was Halstead.
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A
Clearly he has a sense of humor. Yes.
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C
Oh, he was laughing hysterically. He almost fell to the off the sofa. I'm like going, oh, I can't believe it. You're Austin. And he's like, laughing. And he could because. Yes, yes. And you got both jobs. That's how we started.
- [17:40]
A
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- [17:56]
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A
Yeah, and I love that story. And the job you got right was being one of his, one of two in house fit models, right?
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C
Yes. The in house model, Shirley Ferro at that point was the other one. He had other in house models in previous years, earlier years and later years, but it was, we were the two mainstay models that were with him almost all the time. And he liked to have other girls to learn about different body shapes, you know, because some girls were high waisted and some had more of a hip or more of a bust. And a lot of things that he would drape on Shirley because Shirley had perfect bust shape, so. And she was fuller busted. The other girls that were the wholesome models you could see were not particularly well endowed, that we were more flat chested, as they called it. So. And a lot of the things that he drape on Shirley would be made for Liz Taylor because Liz Taylor had a fuller bus. So it was his way of learning the woman's body shapes that fit each celebrity and customer he had. That's how we first started. So there was always this ability to laugh and yet to work really hard and understand the essence of time. Because basically working during that time there were so many things to do. You, you had to be very, very aware of your schedules and your agendas to get everything done. Collections, you know. Now, well, being in the house model process, you would be what was, you were in a payroll situation with him and you would be there. We would try to get there. He would be there at 8 o' clock sharp. The workroom would be there at 8 o' clock doing patterns. And he would take time going through the patterns and the progression of the clothing and everything. And then the work staff would come in about 8:30, 9:00'. Clock. We would review the daily schedule, what fittings were required. And this was done in the 70s. In the 70s, we were still in Halston Limited, which was a smaller space. Things changed once we moved to Halston Enterprises, the Olympic Towers, because while it was cozy and Nice on 68th street, we needed more people to work to build the company, and it became a fire hazard. So we could not stay there any longer. He kept the shop there, he kept the majority salon there. But the entire workroom and creative staff and corporate staff were all moved to the Olympic Towers in, I believe it was 1978, 79. But the scheduling of the job was interesting because it was like. It was very diverse. It depended upon the day and it depend upon how we progressed with the collection of clothing. Now, during that time, the collection of Clothing was about 150 pieces per collection. Nowadays it's considerably less. The workload was different, the scheduling was different. And what he'd like to do is we would do sort of like he do preliminary sketches. Joe Eula, who he hired in 74, would do sketching of me turning and creating what was called shapes. And then Halston would interpret them on. In developing into his draping. Now, his sketches that people know, which are usually on ledger paper, line paper, are those the ones that are used to be sent to. To the workroom so they know exactly how, what to work off that. His patterns and his developing of his silhouettes progressed in many, many different ways because of the patterns that had to be created. The evening gowns and the dresses and things had more of an easier. He cut into the fabric and drape and pin, and these shapes could take an hour or hours.
- [24:18]
A
And this was on you, right? Draping and pitting on your body? Yeah.
- [24:22]
C
Yes, some of them were, but some of the other pieces with the fuller bust and everything were draped on Shirley. So we could easily stand for an hour to two hours on one single piece.
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A
Wow.
- [24:34]
C
And when the draping was done, it was all pinned together, so the whole thing would just be lifted over your head. And then the workroom would take it and make it into a pattern, and then it would be recut and redeveloped and. And then the process of making a. An actual silhouette could. Could take several times over. So when the piece would come off, they pull it over your head and they'd go to the workroom. A lot of it was steamed create steamed with the pins in it to create a new shape. And then it was recut. And then Halson would take a look at it and then edit it and adapt it to what he really wanted for the final piece. Now, if it was coats, and it was jackets. He would do it in the muslin and then do it into a secondary fabric and then finally into the real fabric for the collection. Some of the evening pieces, especially the bias cut, he became so comfortable with cutting into it. He would cut into some of the real fabric, which you've seen before, that he would take the bolt out and be able to just drape it and put it on the body. So there was two different techniques in developing his shapes and silhouettes and his. His hands. He had beautiful hands, but the way he would. You would watch him when he was pinning and cutting it was so inspiring. You'd have, let's say, one of the team, or actually two. You'd have the seamster, the tailor, and then you'd have their assistants supplying Halston the pins and the scissors so that he would cut and pin and cut and pin, and he would create it like sculpture. And it was like what clay is to a sculptor. Fabric was to Halston. And he would create these amazing sculpted fabric pieces, which were design dresses was out of cloth. And it was extraordinary to see how he would go through that process. And it was very quiet, and he would move very silently through it. Little almost like a surgeon. Pins, needles, cut, you know, stuff like that. But it was. It was amazing. And I do not think, to my knowledge, that too many designers ever, ever did that way of creating shapes and silhouettes, because you can see in his clothing why it's so beautifully done. And that's really practicing of draping and cutting.
- [27:17]
A
Right. And as his in house fit metal. Obviously, you're uniquely qualified to discuss this because you were front and center to this process for many, many times and many, many years. What I also love about your relationship with Halston is you're more than just a model, his friend, and also his muse. And you inspired a lot of his designs. And I'd love if you could tell us maybe specifically about the sarong dress, because that's such a wonderful story.
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C
Sure. I think. I think also part of the understanding, he would say to me, because of my background design, I could talk more in a technical term, if it didn't fit right, let's say under the armhole and the seams, and it'd be like, no, it has to be moved, or, you know, I could help and he would quickly be able to correct it. Very quickly. But I think also it's the fact that when we created the sarong. The sarong is a very iconic piece that people have seen it on many celebrities. It was called the it dress by Women's Wear Daily. You had Lee Radziwill, you had Barbara Allen, you had Marissa Berenson, you had Barbara Walters there, all wearing the sarong dress. And many more celebrities. You had Liz Taylor wearing it. The sarong. Actually, we were on vacation, and we went to Fire Island. And the house that Halston rented had. It was very modern in style, and it had what was called the pool with the sliding windows, mirrored windows that. That would open to the pool from the actual house. And so I had come and I got into the pool and swam a couple of laps, and then I proceeded to get out, and I took one of these big field crest towels that were on the lounge chair, and I started to wrap myself. And he said, no, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait. Let's go to the mirror. Sliding doors. And I said, okay. And what he did was he pulled from the back and pulled and twisted in the front and made what is what I call it, bunny ears from the actual towel. What. What happened was that the towel created a sarong effect, which just sort of curved the body. And we looked at it, and we both went, oh, my God. Silk shamoose. You know?
- [29:42]
A
Right.
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C
So it was something where we thought it's. It should be sexy, it should be sensual, it should be glamorous. And silk chamoose is really a fabric to do that, you know, to create that image. So that was how it. It came from a bath towel. Now, when we went back to this, the salon, and the workroom, and we told them what we did, they're looking at us and going, okay, okay. Right from a bath towel. So we're showing them this, and it was Halston who thought, wait a minute, we've got to do an invisible bra in here, because these ladies want to look fabulous, but they have to have some support system in there so that the dress doesn't fall down and reveal their bust and everything. Then they should feel comfortable and glamorous. So what he did was he built what was called an invisible bra inside the dress and then cut the dress on the bias. And he was using this very famous fabric called Abraham's silk, but they only made it 36 inches wide. And that all that did not complete the entire length of the dress cut on the bias. So he would have the fabric sewn together on a seam so it became more like from 36 to 72. So that was draped on the form. And then on the top, for the bunny ears, he created a way of what is called doing little Bias cut patterns inside the tie so that it fit and it stayed in place, but it was attached to the actual bra. So when the woman got into the dress, she was supported by her bra and it was like the bunny ears just tied just like that. And it was perfect. So it never really moved. So the woman looked glamorous, but she also felt comfortable.
- [31:49]
A
Yeah. And I mean, it speaks to Halston Wright. Genius. Because this is such an effortless design and it look, it's such effortless chic. Right. But exactly underneath, as you're telling us, is all of this architecture essentially that you're not seeing.
- [32:05]
C
Exactly.
- [32:07]
A
And such a celebration of the natural form. So effortlessly beautiful and then also just so classic. Something that has been knocked off many times and then also something that remains just as fashionable and just as chic today.
- [32:23]
C
Yes. And I think also he. What he would tend to do is once he created what is called the signature silhouette, he would translate it into different fabrics as well as prints. But each time he translated it, he had to redo it because the fabric, he was such a perfectionist. The fabric would tell him what was needed. So not all of them patterns were the same. They had to be different according to the fabric that, that he worked in because he did a velvet dress. But then, you know, a lot of times with some of the others, he would do it in a chiffon and he would do it in a lame and others. So he would perfect the silhouette, but each pattern had its own specific pattern details in it. And I think that was something that made it not only look different, but it just. The actual shape became so iconic because no one had done us a wrong in that way. And then to expand out on it with different beautiful patterns and then velvet, it was fantastic.
- [33:41]
B
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- [35:00]
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A
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- [36:18]
C
I think maybe we should talk about the Skimp.
- [36:21]
A
Absolutely.
- [36:23]
C
The Skimp was created at the same time period. They're all 1974, 75 and 76. So that's in their time frame. The skimp was actually, it was a concept, it was a marketing concept because during that time period in the mid-70s, length was very, very important. It was newsworthy. If you dropped an inch or you raised it an inch or, you know, the length of the skirt was key to fashion news press. And so he was very close friends with John Fairchild. And John Fairchild was the creator of Women's Wear Daily. It was a daily trade newspaper reporting on fashion. But he also brought in a lot of gossip of New York featuring Jackie Kennedy going to the fabulous Grenwille lunch or the Colony and how she was dressed and how all the Park Avenue society ladies dressed at parties and other events at that moment. Halston had created several pieces in his collection, last collection, which was more of a midi length. And he was due for lunch with John Fairchild and the staff. Everybody was saying, why don't we do something short? Now, Stephen Sprouse, who was also one of part of the team, he loved short things. He was an advocate of short dresses, he loved Andy Warhol and he was a very close and dear friend of mine. So Halson said, okay, we can think about doing short, but we got to do short in a much better way. We have to do it where it really, it's identifiable and that people can relate to it. He says, I'm going to have lunch with John Fairchild. When I come back, we'll think about it some more. So we had the lunch with John Fairchild and we were waiting, which was we'd have afternoon fittings and I was sitting there and a lot of times in the salon area. Halson eventually, when he became Halston Enterprises, the fourth floor became his fitting and design room and we had an adjacent fitting room next door to it. So we would wait for the designs to come up from the workroom. And because it was so cold, we kept it very cold because you didn't want to anything to get sweaty on the clothing or especially the chiffons and everything else. So we had to be very meticulous about that. So I was waiting and I had on one of his wraparound sort of lightweight trench coats and everything. And I had on what was called a taffeta anti static slip, a half slips, which I had pulled all the way to the top so it looked like a little short mini dress. And I had my halse and ballet shoes in that particular room. It was all carpeted gray carpets. So what happened was you get a lot of static and that was a problem with a lot of the clothing because it would cling to the body. So we, we had to remedy that. But the anti static slip helped release the cloth from clinging to the body. So I had this anti static slip on which looked like a mini dress. And I was waiting and I walked out of the fitting room into the salon. He goes, wait, stop a second. And he says, I want you to come to the mirror. Because he always liked looking into the mirror. And he said, I've got an idea. I want the other. The. I want Billy and I want Stephen to go downstairs and get a couple of cashmere dresses and I want it cut exactly to the length of Chris's Tap it. A slip at this point. So they went. And it was cut. It was put on me cut. And then he put the raincoat on. He put what was called the poor boy hat on me that he designed. And he put also a big Bobby Breslow bag at that point. Now, Bobby Breslow was also someone who designed these bags that Halson loved, and he would put them in the Halson boutique. So the skimp, Joe Heula came in, like, moments when we're cutting and putting the dress on. And Joe Eula said, I love it. And he started sketching it like crazy. And Hossus said, I have the name for it. And he says, get me John Fairchild. He calls up and he says, john. And he says, I've got it. And I'm calling my new creation I the Skimp. And John Fairchild said, we'll be over, like, to shoot it next morning. And he said, you can shoot it in my new townhouse. So that's how the skimp was created. He had two other versions made up with one in ultra suede, made short. He took an ultra suede dress shirt and shortened it for Shirley. And the next morning, we were in his townhouse, his new townhouse, which he bought. And we were on the staircase, and that became the famous W magazine cover with us in the cashmere. I was in the cashmere dress with a red cashmere tie and with the Bobby Breslow. And Shirley was walking up the stairs in her skimp, which was an ultra suede.
- [41:55]
A
Yeah. And I'm looking at it right now. And again, it's just one of those designs that is. Looks like it could come. It would be today. Women are wearing this design today. It's a very effortless kind of design. Mini skirt. Not a mini skirt. I guess it goes to your mid thigh, but just looks comfortable, but just chic. And then it looks like you have, like, a red sweater tied around your. Tied around your waist with these ballet flats. I mean, it's amazing how classic his work is.
- [42:23]
C
That's where the beauty of this, you know, Cassidy, because that was like, we didn't want miniskirts because he had done hot pants in 69, and he had. He was very aware of mini, you know, length. And he wanted something that did not look old or vintagey. He wanted something that was very contemporary at this point. And that women, when they put it on, they made them. It made them feel happy, you know, and it also addressed his younger audience, who wanted something. Something in that way, but they wanted something that they felt that they could just run around in and have a great time in. And so we did that not only in the day wear, we also did it in evening wear where he did these beautiful Paillette sequin short dresses that there, there's a film on me on that as well that we're running around and we're just. It was great. What's called disco dancing dresses. But it's like you wore it with flat shoes and he had Bobby Breslow do what these called, like little mini bags where you would put your lipstick and certain things that you need, and then you would sling it over your little short skimp dress and wear your flats because it was more comfortable. You didn't wear high heels, you wore flats at that point. And that's your ingenue looking fun mini dress. And it became an incredible editorial favorite of, I would say, Vogue. Vogue shot it as soon as we showed it in the show. And again, this is funny. They shot it, we showed it in the show. And Grace Marabella was there and she says, no, no, no, no. Debbie is downstairs. She has to photograph it. So again, I'm outside and now I'm. Debbie is photographing me with this skimp on for. For Vogue. And that was with the coat and the poor boy cap and the Bobby Breslow back. And that's an iconic picture from Vogue. So you had Women's Wear Daily coverage, you had Vogue coverage, you had Harper's Bazaar coverage, and you also had British Vogue coverage. Eric Bowman. Who? The late Eric Bowman. They did a double page spread in British Vogue of Halston and his girls with all the different variations of the skimp.
- [44:49]
A
I was going to say, what I love about all of these stories is it's demonstrating not only were you, like front and center to witnessing his collaborative process, you yourself were the inspiration for his designs, but you were also one of his creative collaborators, which we've talked about a couple different times, and part of a design team that famously included Joe, Eula and Elsa Peretti. And I'd love if you could talk a little bit about what that, that creative dynamic was like.
- [45:14]
C
When I first started, Halston made a call to Joe, Eula, who was a very longtime friend of Halston, and Joe was very important in part of triangling, I say, the team of working and creating the image of Halston. He would call himself the fastest pencil. He could do it faster than a photograph. And it was true. He could get the essence of the design and the look and everything on paper in a way that a photograph could not do it justice. And that was not Paulson's forte, but it was like they were Siamese twins. They worked together in that way. Now, when they worked together, because this was going on, he. Because he was looking for a model. Unbeknownst to me, he was looking for someone like me for quite a while. And so what happened was, when I first started, I was invited to one of these parties. It was a very famous hairdresser, Jimmy Rita, who is very chic and everything. We would be invited to these parties. And it was Stephen Sprouse and Dennis Christopher, who is the actor. He did Chariots of Fire and stuff. But at that point, he was one of Paulson's assistants. And we went to the party, and I hear this booby voice. That's my girl. And I'm going, oh. And they're going, that's Joe. He knows all about you. I went over to Joe and he goes, you and I are going to start tomorrow sketching. I went to Joe's beautiful apartment, which was in a townhouse on 54th street on the west side. And it was one of these quirky townhouses that he had two floors, but downstairs were these gay guys. They would dress like La Cage Lefold. I mean, they would have the plumes and they would have the spring elator, you know, shoes on and everything. And they opened the door and they said, joe's upstairs. You have to go up two flights. So I went up there, and so Joe and I started. I had a couple of pieces of Halston on, and he says, just walk around and do. Do your walk. And I said, okay, fine. And so he sketched me like crazy. And then he would do another thing. And then he would say, take this jacket and how would you wear it? And I would wear it, and then he would sketch it, and he'd do these amazing shapes. And we do, like, short and long and everything else, because we did certain mini dresses. And it was almost like doing, like, dance in a way. And what happened after that was that Joe would bring them to Halston, and then we would review the silhouettes and everything. And they decided that. They said, no, you're going to become a big Vogue model. Because there were times there that Halston was getting to so many meetings. He said, I want you to be involved in all aspects of this. I don't want you sitting around waiting for a fitting when you know the fitting will be for hours. It doesn't make sense. So they said, you could be a very big Vogue model. And I'm like, going, really? I thought my face is too round, like I look like a chipmunk. And they're going, no, absolutely not. You're. You're going with Joe, and you're going to work at Vogue. Joe's speaking to Grace Mirabella about you and a good. Okay. And you're going to work on the Vogue trend reports. Now, the Vogue trend reports were very, very important at that time to service the fashion community, to serve the designers, to serve the stores and everybody. They would choose designers shapes and designs, and they would highlight them in reports, especially to the department stores over these, the key shapes, these are the key looks. This is the. The most important fabric colorations that you should be aware of for your buying into your stores. And it was a very big, big event, but it was also beautifully done. The room working there was all beige. Grace Mirabella was known for her color of beige, and it was exquisite. It was so chic. And so Joe and I would be in this trend room and trying on. I would be trying on all the designer clothes, and then Joe would quickly sketch them because they would have to take them back immediately because the designers needed them to put it in the fashion shows. That's how I met Grace Mirabella and Francis Sein and Polly Mellon. And it was fascinating because Frances had a very specific way of dressing. Me and Polly Mellon had a completely different way of dressing. So they had Patrick Dumas Chaulier, who was just starting at that point. And Patrick would shoot in one area, Joe would sketch in the other area, and Francis would style it all. And then in an hour, the clothes were going out again, back to the designer. So she surprised me in one of my first layouts was in Vogue. They loved the picture so much that they actually used it in the magazine.
- [50:37]
A
Yeah. And I mean, you really did become a Vogue It Girl. I was looking through the archive. Specifically in 1974, you're in every single issue of Vogue except, I think, February.
- [50:49]
C
Yeah, right, right. It was constant shootings. And I'd work also in tandem with Halston's schedule because if. If I couldn't do it, like, there were certain projects that for trips and things I could not do because I had to be with Halston, because a lot of times we would work at night, you know, so it was like you get done with one, you go to Vogue and then you come back to Halston because, like, you knew what the schedule of all the fittings were all very precise. So you knew when you had to be back there. And they worked together on these things and allowing me to do that. And then a lot of times during that time because of Paulson's meeting schedules, it was really nothing to work till prior to collections. Especially for a month you'd be working till 2, 3 in the morning and then you'd be back at 8 o' clock in the morning. So it was pretty grueling, some people would think, but if you're a fashion type of person, it was not work for me. It was just like, oh, this is so fabulous. What could we do next?
- [51:52]
A
We will just have to save the answer that question for Thursday when we continue our conversation with Chris, beginning with her central part in bringing Deborah Turbeville's famed bathhouse fashion spread to life. We have so much more to hear from Chris about her life as a Halstanette and a Halston archivist in addition to being one of the top models of the 1970s. So you will not want to miss out on part two.
- [52:15]
B
In the meantime, you can listen to our two part interview with Halston at Pat Cleveland the magic of the 1970s fashion and follow along with Chris's is Instagram @ChrisRoyer collections and Royer is spelled R O Y E R where she posts daily images and commentary on her life lived in fashion. Well, that does it for us today. Dress listeners, may you consider living your own best life in fashion next time you get dressed.
- [52:42]
A
We love hearing from you, so please write to us@hello dressedhistory.com that's helloresedhistory.com which is our new email address. Dress and Reflects our new website dressedhistory.com where you can sign up for our newsletter and check out the link to our bookshelf. Among many things, you can also DM us on Instagram at Dressed Underscore podcast where we always post images and reels to accompany each week's episode. And if you want to find the Instagram content specifically connected to this episode, check out the hashtag dressed300. That's dress300 and the numbers 300 more dressed coming your way on Thursday.
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C
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