Halston Heritage (Q4226)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Halston Heritage is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Halston Heritage |
Halston Heritage is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
It would have been interesting to see how Roy Halston Frowick might have interpreted athleisure. Maybe he would have gravitated toward a minimal jumpsuit or a pair of sleek and practical elastic-waist trousers. It’s hard to imagine that he would embrace the track pants, anoraks, and sports bras worn as tops that we see so often today. As a designer, Halston was all about giving women easy glamour and not following the lead when it came to popular trends. But those were different days. Now, for a middle-market brand to survive in the fledgling world of department store retail, it must pay close attention to the wants of its customers. Athleisure is still very much a money-making look.This season, Halston Heritage designer Marie Mazelis played up to that demand with a windbreaker-inspired dress; a sweater with sleeves and banding meant to mimic sports gear worn over a black gown; and several iterations of jogging pants. These pieces were all nicely designed and certainly looked comfortable enough to wear during the day and well into night, but they were in a category all their own. Mazelis also showed details on blouses and skirts like balloon sleeves, fringe, metallic accents, and lace. The collection felt a bit disjointed and it would have been nice to see Mazelis run with the idea of what Halston’s “glamleisure” might have looked like today. As always, Halston Heritage had something for every kind of woman, but it fell short in terms of consistency.
9 February 2018
“Lazy-sexy” was one of the first terms that Marie Mazelis used to describe her Spring 2018 collection for Halston Heritage. And that it was: breezy, airy, light, diaphanous, and all of the other things one might say about easy day-to-night wear. Mazelis’s mood board consisted of imagery like the paintings of early 20th-century Austrian artist Egon Schiele; cut-up tropical fruit; photographs of tanned, topless models from old issues ofInterviewmagazine and ItalianVogue; and, of course—the man himself—Mr. Halston. It was a black-and-white picture of a woman on the beach wearing a bathing suit and a dramatic head wrap with long, flowing ties hanging down and almost touching the sand; Mazelis recreated this look almost exactly this season. Other pieces in the new collection, like the draping and ruching on linens and silks that appeared on white shirts and orange and green dresses, mimicked Halston’s handiwork on his head scarves and hats (he was a milliner before becoming a ready-to-wear designer).This season was certainly less about the Halston Heritage selling point of “going-out” dresses and jumpsuits and more about giving the customer something a little less showstopping. Embellishments were kept light, colors muted, and the strongest set for Spring was that of the vintage striped pajama shirts and pants, and a pretty elastic-waist knee-length skirt. The new “lazy-sexy” formula was a success.
8 September 2017
Comfort, ease, architectural forms, and a Susan Sontag quote were the key ingredients in Marie Mazelis’s Fall collection for Halston Heritage. The designer looked to the writer’s powerful words for inspiration: “It is not the position, but the disposition.” The clothes certainly reflected that sort of inherent confidence, with pieces that ranged from oversize knitwear to feminine suiting and, of course, a slinky disco dress or two. The mostly gray separates befit a power woman and included the knotting and draping of silks, which recalled the shape-shifting artwork of Kerry Vesper and Angela Glajcar. Mazelis really experimented with texture this season, particularly in the faux fur jackets and heavy wool overcoats. Some of the flounce, however (particularly in a pink strapless jumpsuit), seemed a bit off base from the rest of the offering. That being said, Halston Heritage is carrying plenty of smart, sophisticated looks for day-to-night, all ready to be accessorized with one of the label’s chic vintageHlogo bags—or with nothing more than a self-assured, stylish disposition.
7 March 2017
Roy Halston Frowick had a propensity for being surrounded by a gaggle of swan-necked beauties—Pat Cleveland, Beverly Johnson, Karen Bjornson, and Anjelica Huston among them. But this season, it was another in that broader mold who inspired the team atHalston Heritage. Namely: Martha Graham. Halston himself had collaborated with the directional dancer and choreographer, creating costumes for pieces like herClytemnestra. And this season, more generally, it was modern dance’s organicism and unfettered elegance that caught the eye of designer Marie Mazelis.At today’s preview, Mazelis nodded to ideas like movement and lightness, the latter driven immediately home with her palette of whisper-soft blush and almond—what she dubbed “ballet neutrals.” But nigh every piece boasted some touch of those ideas. There were trapunto-finished suede, gently draped jackets, the lightest ribbed cashmere tanks, and an evening gown with loose, strip detailing along the neckline which was whipped up in both matte crepe and lightly glossy satin to dynamic effect. Mazelis also proposed a handful of great catsuits and bodysuits in stretch metallic, a versatile styling piece and fitting foil to all the unshowy neutrals elsewhere. A nice, and nicely understated, offering from the designer and her team.
22 September 2016
“We are all broken. That’s how the light gets in.” It’s a line often attributed, in the vast, factually dubious expanse of the Internet, to Ernest Hemingway, though in all likelihood it’s a bastardized version of a lyric by Leonard Cohen (with the bastardization seemingly inspired by Hemingway). Regardless of the specifics, it’s a beautiful sentiment, and it was the inspiration this season for Halston Heritage designer Marie Mazelis. With the idea of shattered glass and the beautiful possibilities of putting things back together again (Berlin art collective Tape That made a cameo on her mood board, too), Mazelis set about tapping into ideas of spare deconstruction, also looking to artist George Wyllie’s 78-foot paper boat. That storied public artwork lent garments their almost sculptural, origami folds. There were asymmetrical skirts; low-slung, blousey jumpsuits; and generally a longer, more languid silhouette than is typical for Halston Heritage.Mazelis spoke, too, about the idea of “touches of light,” which came to life in softly shimmering button-downs, or where the designer traded in the often heavy-looking metal hardware of seasons gone by in favor of delicate chain piping. Indeed, while red carpet cachet continues to be the main source of buzz around HH, here Mazelis and her team set about rounding out the daytime offerings, proposing pieces like a snowy shirt dress and a featherweight cashmere turtleneck that came with subtly sexy racerback cutouts. But surely some of those touches of light will be courtesy of popping flashbulbs: perhaps more than ever before. Here, Mazelis struck upon a bit of the glamour that was Roy Halston Frowick’s signature, with her goat hair–trimmed toppers and gleaming, one-shouldered Lurex party frocks.
3 March 2016
Everything old is new again atHalston Heritage. ForPre-Fallan archival feather hat designed by the late, legendary Roy Frowick set the gears turning, and for Spring it was a vintage Halston silk scarf in a macro orchid print that inspired creative directorMarie Mazelis. At today’s preview she also namechecked Cuba, specifically referring to the candy-colored, crumbling splendor captured in photographer Robert Polidori’s images of Havana. The jetsetting appeal of recent seasons—inspirations have lately included Halston’s jaunts to China and Acapulco—has done plenty to increase the glamour quotient at the brand, and it did so here, too, if subtly. That orchid scarf led to larger-than-life prints (Halston was known to spend around six figures a year to keep his studio full of his favorite blooms), which were used on blouses and diaphanous caftans. The Polidori pictures informed Mazelis’s palette of aquamarine, coral, and tangerine.Movement was central here, whether in the accordion-pleated chiffon overlay that topped one simple sheath, or the fistfuls of jangling paillettes on the shoulders of another. At times it felt like the HH team stuck too literally to the shapes of Halston’s seventies salad days with their one-shouldered frocks, plunging halter dresses, and wide-leg glamour-puss jumpsuits. Next season it might be worth adding a bit of that era’s gleeful hedonism into the mix.
9 September 2015
Often, pre-season collections serve as a time for designers to air their work at its most commercial, focused as those offerings are on keeping new stock on retailers' shelves. But for Halston Heritage's Marie Mazelis, Resort allowed her to explore the season in the truest sense of the word, zeroing in on a beachy elegance inspired by Roy Halston Frowick's 1976 press jaunt to Acapulco, Halstonettes in tow. While not dripping in the kind of Studio 54-honed debauchery one would expect from Halston and his entourage (Halston Heritage in recent years has been marked by a quietly conservative undertone, from palette to silhouette), it was an opportunity for Mazelis to ease up on the brand's more office-minded leanings. She turned an eye instead to one-shoulder wafting caftans, palazzo jumpsuits, and gauzy, accordion-pleated maxi gowns, ready-made for poolside lounging and a spin or two on the dance floor. Glossy hardware as built-in accessory—an HH signature for several seasons now—sprung to life as chains that linked together bodices and skirts. But perhaps the best bling on offer here came in the form of a simple beaded cream shirtdress. What it lacked in diaphanous yards of material it more than made up for in a certain Halston-esque loucheness.
28 May 2015
Go East, young man. Fall's Halston Heritage outing took its cues from Roy Frowick's 1980 trip to China, where he became the first American designer to put on a fashion show. The label's present-day designer, Marie Mazelis, isn't one to ever borrow too plainly from the Halston vernacular, so rather than looking at the clothes Halston showed that September day in Peking, Mazelis made it work for her in the form of a subtle Eastern influence. A mandarin collar here, a brushstroke print there, a handful of abstracted obi belts—all were welcome additions to the lineup. On the whole, there were some more decisive moves here. Mazelis punched up the brand's usually neutral palette (the effect of which is sometimes fatiguingly office-appropriate) with scattered jewel tones, and turned an eye to what she dubbed "minimalist extravagance"—simple pieces for day and night in luxe fabrications. A gold gown came in two-sided sequins so that, say, the brush of a hand or slipping into the back of a cab would leave it with a prettily roughed-up finish. That one looked ready-made for Charlize Theron, recently spotted in a Halston Heritage number on the red carpet.
7 March 2015
For Pre-Fall, Halston Heritage designer Marie Mazelis found herself looking at a powder blue feather-wig hat designed by Halston during his early days of creating chapeaus for Bergdorf Goodman—a piece that's bold, beautiful, and shares plenty of DNA with the glamour that would come to be synonymous with the house that Roy built. But while Mazelis nodded to it through a series of airy feather prints, the hat's joie de vivre was absent here. Some of the looks felt soigné (a buttery suede slipdress), but others were a touch lackluster, if perhaps safer for sales (cropped khaki-colored trousers, paired with a printed peach tank and ruched suede belt). Stronger were the more distinctive bets, like a fluttery paneled frock and a double-face cashmere coat in blush. For her Spring outing, Mazelis was keen to stress the fact that Halston Heritage is not an archival brand, but with this collection she felt adrift. She'll want to define her perspective a bit more strongly if the Halston name is going to rally in the face of a beleaguered recent history.
8 January 2015
Today Marie Mazelis was quick to point out that Halston Heritage is no archival brand. In the two years since taking the helm of the relaunched house, Mazelis has focused on splicing the house's weighty DNA with modern ease to turn out a contemporary line. In keeping with a footing that's firmly placed in the 21st century (a far cry from the Studio 54 goddess gowns and jewel tones seen under former creative director Sarah Jessica Parker), for Spring Mazelis zeroed in on a particularly modern element of Roy Halston Frowick's legacy. Long before there was Raf Simons x Sterling Ruby, there were Halston's myriad collaborations with artists, from his lover Victor Hugo to close friend Andy Warhol (their partnership was the subject of an exhibition at Pittsburgh's Warhol Museum earlier this year).Mazelis' primary interests were collaborations with Elsa Peretti, and Up Tied, a textile studio that pioneered luxe takes on tie-dying techniques. The former came through in metal accents that spoke to Peretti's flair for the organically architectural, such as hefty built-in belts or a silver boomerang shape to highlight a slinky cutout. Silhouettes, from gowns to jumpsuits, leaned on asymmetry and modern tailoring touches like slashes at lapels and down spines. The palette here was quiet, with plenty of dove gray, dusty pink, and soft blue jazzed up thanks to Up Tied's influence. A gray microsuede topper in a soft stripe was particularly exquisite. There were plenty of lovely separates here that are sure to have wide-ranging appeal, and in light of a somewhat fraught few years for Halston, it's not surprising that Mazelis would opt to play it a bit safe with her offerings. But the professionally quirky Carrie Brownstein's recent turn at the Emmys in a one-shoulder goddess gown from the brand (and a host of other red-carpet credits) should serve as a vote of confidence—and license to play a little more in future collections.
3 September 2014
The Halston label's many incarnations are almost as legendary as the designer himself. But Halston Heritage, the contemporary collection, has been chugging along for the past two years with Marie Mazelis, the former creative director of Max Azria and Hervé Léger, at the helm. Now she and CEO Ben Malka—who bought the company in 2011—are ready to show it off.Since Halston Heritage is rooted in the eponymous designer's signature styles, Mazelis has had plenty of fun sifting through the archives for inspiration. For Resort, it was a photo of a caftan-clad Naomi Sims from a 1972 runway show that really resonated. "We're always trying to find new, modern ways of bringing in those classic silhouettes and details," said the Los Angeles-based designer while presenting the collection in New York City.It's clear that Mazelis has a knack for doing just that. A black double-face sequin wrap dress was Studio 54-ish without feeling like a piece of vintage. A black jumpsuit with a multi-stitch tuxedo lapel managed to recall the era while still being totally on trend. Mazelis studied Halston's hand-painted vintage scarves, which inspired a one-shoulder dress and a caftan, both draped out of a square fabric. She even did a version of that original Halston caftan, which continues to be a hit silhouette forty years on. If Mazelis' task is to present Halston's history through a contemporary, easy-to-digest lens, then so far she's nailing it.
11 June 2014