In setting out to direct the documentary Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston, director Whitney Sudler-Smith was inspired by his love and fascination with the legendary designer, the decadent 70s, and evidently himself. While the film offers great archival footage of the handsome and chic fashion designer from Des Moines, Iowa born Roy Halston Frowick along with amusing and insightful interviews with fashion industry insiders and members of Halston's inner circle, Smith's aggressive and entirely unnecessary insertion of himself into the proceedings not only irritated me to no end, but also weakened the movie and I feel, disrespected the subject and the film's participants.
Smith's juvenile and wooden narration along with his tacky and oh-so-ironic Trans Am, series of bad hairstyles and attention-craving get-ups felt like hammy, desperate pleas to draw attention to himself. Smith's obnoxiousness might have been forgivable had he done his homework and not been so clueless. A few of the interviewees, most notably Vogue's editor-at large-and-in-charge Andre Leon Talley, called Smith out for not doing his research. Smith's staring blankly at American haute-couturier Ralph Rucci (a former Halston assistant) as he described seeing Halston lay a bolt of fabric on the floor and cut into it sans pattern and create a perfect, seamless, bias-cut dress hinted at his lack of knowledge, but the director's cutting off Talley to ask who Diana Vreeland is was just pathetic. The fact that Smith did not edit the interviewees' shocked reactions to his ignorance from the final cut seems to be yet another ploy by the director to draw attention to himself - sort of like "I pissed off Andre Leon Talley! Aren't I a cad?"
Smith was lucky to have the likes of Talley, Rucci, Liza Minnelli, Diane von Furstenberg, Naeem Khan, Angelica Houston, Cathy Horyn, Glenn O'Brien, Bob Colacello, and Pat Cleveland agree to sit and talk to him when he was so blatantly ill prepared and seemed to take everything so lightly. Fortunately their tales and the archival footage illustrate the story of Halston's career starting off as a successful milliner and designing the pillbox hat Jackie Kennedy wore for JFK's inauguration to creating the best-selling ultrasuede shirt-dress and pioneering a minimal yet chic aesthetic that forever changed the way American women dress. At the age of 40 Halston was named the “the premier fashion designer of all America” by Newsweek. After partnering with JC Penney for a mass-market collection (a deal signed for $1 billion for six years!) that was poorly executed and ultimately failed, Halston's brand was tarnished by the "lowbrow" collaboration (which was totally visionary and a precursor for all the designer capsule collections today!). The designer sold his company and the rights to his name in 1973 and was fired from the company altogether in the early 80s. Halston's philosophy, “Party hard, live hard, and have the best life,” was detailed via photographs, videos and dishy stories about his debaucherous dinner parties and many nights at Studio 54. Halston died March 26, 1990 at 57 from complications from AIDS.
The designer from Des Moines who dressed countless stars and loved glamour, drama and the limelight undoubtedly would have been pleased with the world premiere of Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston last Friday night. The packed SVA Theater in Chelsea was filled with fashion people and celebs including many featured in the movie along with artist Rachel Feinstein, Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman (whose husband Harvey Weinstein is one of the current owners of Halston), and Sarah Jessica Parker (who was recently signed on to design ?!?! Halston Heritage, the label's secondary line). Learn more at Halstonmovie.com.
The stylish Vidal Sassoon The Movie eloquently documents the rags-to-riches tale of arguably the most famous hairstylist in the world. Born to Jewish parents in London in 1928, the young Sassoon spent his early years in an orphanage after his father left his family and Sassoon, his mother, and his brother were evicted from their home. At the age of 14, Sassoon's mother had an epiphany that her son would be a hairdresser, so she found an apprenticeship for him at a salon in London's East End. After serving in the Israeli army, Sassoon returned to London and the hair trade. After a few years trying to find his own place and identity in the hair industry, Sassoon opened his own salon on London's King Road. At the start of the 60s Sassoon got a fateful request to cut The World of Suzie Wong actress Nancy Kwon's hair, and in cutting her lackluster four-feet-long tresses into a sleek, asymmetric bob, Sassoon discovered his trademark geometric style which helped style Swinging Sixties London. His famous five-point cut modeled by Grace Coddington and Peggy Moffitt and the pixie cut he gave to Mia Farrow for Rosemary's Baby redefined women's hairstyles and liberated young women by freeing them from weekly wash-and-set appointments. Sassoon's architectural, wash-and-go cuts revolutionized beauty for modern women with styles that are still worn today. Always a disciplined, savvy businessman, Sassoon went on to open a chain of salons and internationally acclaimed hair academies, launched a popular line of hair care products, and wrote a lifestyle book and hosted a U.S. television show with his second wife Beverly.
The film also discusses Sassoon's three marriages, four children (his son David was adopted and his eldest daughter Catya sadly overdosed in 2002), philanthropic work (he founded an organization that has built 23 new houses in New Orleans post Katrina), 2009 appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and his obsession with healthy living. Scenes of the stylist effortlessly performing acrobatic stretches (Sassoon started taking pilates 25 years ago) displayed his limberness and elicited gasps of awe from the audience. Directed by Craig Teper and produced by Bumble and bumble founder Michael Gordon, Vidal Sassoon The Movie shows Gordon and his team working on an early layout for a book he will publish on the life and work of Sassoon. Along with Gordon (who unlike Ultrasuede's Smith makes an understated appearance in his own film), former Sassoon employees, spouses, and mod fashion designer Mary Quant are interviewed for the film, though the most revealing interviewee is the subject himself. At 82-years-old, the elegant, poised, intelligent, and articulate Sassoon is open, frank, charming and clearly very grateful for all that he's achieved and for the homage. Learn more at Vidalsassoonthemovie.com.
Photo from vidalsassoonthemovie.com
Thankyou for a frank and honest review of the Halston movie. It's a pity that such a fashion ignoramus spoiled such an oportunity to finally make the first good Halston documentary.
Posted by: Dustin | 07/18/2010 at 06:33 AM
Great project, and it seems like it had great results.
Posted by: puma speed cat | 06/30/2010 at 09:13 PM