A Fashion Lovers‘ Fantasy:  Halston Exhibit at the Andy Warhol Museum

From the first glimpse of Jackie Kennedy’s iconic pink pill box hat practically jumping off the gallery wall toward my widened eyes, I was in awe, enchanted, and enthralled with the Halston exhibit here in Pittsburgh. Goose bumps even.   And that was just the very start.

It was so appropriate that “Silver and Suede” opened at the Warhol.  Andy Warhol (the Silver part due to his “Silver Factory”) and Halston (who famously used ultrasuede, hence the Suede part) were friends, traveling in the same circles of rare artistic air. In their world, with everyone around them totally grabbing their 15 minutes of fame at Studio 54, in the Hamptons, and wherever there were fashionable people in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s, networking was their mode of communication well before the noun “network” became a verb. In 1979, Andy Warhol’s Exposures had a chapter dedicated to his collaborator and friend Halston (born Roy Halston Frowick), in which he is described as the “first All-American fashion designer.” Born within a few years of each other, Halston mourned the untimely death of Warhol in 1987, and then died himself of AIDS in 1990, when both of them were still at the pinnacle of their pop culture and mass market fame.

The Halston Exhibit

This exhibit features Fashion with a capital F! There are Halston gowns, dresses, and coats that not only dazzled me with the beauty of their lines, the sumptuousness of their flowing fabrics, and the impact of their total look, but their timelessness. There wasn’t a single dress in this collection that wasn’t wearable today, and I would even go as far as saying that every piece was totally ON TREND now, in the year 2014. I was astonished to see long dresses, sleek and flowing gowns, gorgeous coats, jumpsuits and shirtdresses translated by Halston that are runway ready today.

The artifacts too were priceless, with invitations displayed in glass cases from Halston to Warhol, and Warhol to Halston, and photographs of an era when people like Liza Minnelli, Mick Jagger and his first wife Bianca were young, edgy, and living the life of fame.  There were caftans straight out of the closet of Elizabeth Taylor, and friendly handwritten notes to Halston by this queen of all thing beautiful herself.  (I mean really!  You simply must  have beautiful clothes when you are wearing some of the largest diamonds in the world, as I’m sure Liz would have explained if you had had a chance to ask!)

The influence of these two creative geniuses upon each other, Silver and Suede personified, were readily apparent throughout the gallery.  For example, Warhol’s famous “Flower” print wall piece became remixed by Halston as fabric for a draped silk dress and scarf, a dress so iconic that the former flower child in me simply wanted to grab it straight off the manikin and wear it forever! The intersection of the art of these two men and their admiration for each other resonated throughout the installation, while my dear friend Laurie and I let out constant oooo’s and ahhhhh’s over the clothes, the art, and this amazing collection of everything cool.

I especially loved the stories associated with some of the clothing, for example the Bunny Dress, which was created especially for Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball. This gorgeous strapless black floor length gown with very simple yet elegant lines, has a bodice edged in white rabbit fur worthy of the Mad Hatter, matching the incredible bunny mask complete with bunny ears, also of rabbit fur. As the story goes, this dress was designed for actress Marisa Berenson, the granddaughter of fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, to wear to the soiree. But for some reason, which I imagine she has forever regretted, Berenson was “unable” to attend the ball, so the ever striking Candice Bergen rocked the dress and bunny mask and ears to the ball and into one of Fashion’s most iconic moments ever, instead of Marisa.

While this exhibit was only one of the seven floors of the Museum, all of the Warhol is a veritable gem if you are a lover of fashion, complete with selfie photo ops on the ground floor too good to resist, especially when you can pose on a sofa that belonged to Andy, underneath a portrait of Andy doing the same!!

So, put Pittsburgh on your radar if you haven’t already, and get on over to this splendid exhibit between now and August 24 to see firsthand some of the fashion creations of a true Master named Halston and palpable evidence of his goings-on with his friend Andy.  I guarantee you’ll have goose bumps, too.

Fashionably yours,

Deborah