Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston

I'd wanted to see this since I first heard about it. It was playing on a streaming service and started - enthusiastically - to watch.

There were warning signs to how bad this world be almost instantly.

The VO - sine by the market of this - started off on the world foot when he's doing his introduction.

This is supposed to be a documentary about THE preeminent American designer, Halston.

The dummy's very first words were, 'the 70's had it all; drugs, sex and disco....' then he says how he saw pictures of this person, Halston all over and he was '...always surrounded by these gorgeous chicks...'

My stomach was turning.

He starts off with an... Interviewer - and I use the word lightly - with Liza Minelli.

She invites him into her gorgeous (Halston decorated) aspirant, and as she's taking, saying how after he died she'd given a memorial, this oaf interrupts and says, 'did you sing?'

Liza was nice enough bit to smack this idiot. She politely said this wasn't about her, but him - her deceased friend. She went on to say that this filmmaker should 'go so research'.

The next interview with André Leon Talley (I'd you sunny know who he is this isn't a documentary for you, either), who - as he's briefly explaining how Halston started as a milliner, was discovered by Diana Vreeland.

At this, the nabob says, 'who's that?'

This was ONLY five minutes in.

I quickly turned this garbage off.

Angrily, I might add.

Part of my anger is, how did this dummy manage to get such good placement for what is an amateurish, terribly researched piece of garbage?!?! . I'd really hope that someone who has a background in fashion or an interest in it (at least!) can make a documentary about this iconic designer.

And put this piece in the trash.

For the ones curious of US fashion and is history. Superb.

A documentary about Halston could be so great! Sigh. Unfortunately, this film seems to be poorly spliced together with interviews (if you could call them interviews) of some of the people who knew Halston in the fashion world, and others who were notably closest to him like Liza Minelli. The Good: Some great vintage photographs of Halston and models dressed in his clothes mostly during the late 70s disco scene. Some video clips of Halston in the early 1980s. Also the recollections of model Pat Cleveland were quite interesting and somewhat moving.

The Bad: There were "interviews" with the filmmaker's mother, music stars Billy Joel, Nile Rodgers and a few others that should have been edited. Liza Minelli's naive (untruthful?) recollections of Studio 54 and Halston's free-time seem frankly incredible. The Dupont twins obviously have some great knowledge about Halston and Studio 54, but the moderator rushed the conversation and miniscule information was gleaned. The rest of these interviews, with some greatly notable people, were all too brief and all over the place. A quick standup interview (who didn't even take the time to sit down) with Ming Vauze scratched the surface of a torrid tormented relationship of Halston with Victor Hugo, and the end of Halstons life in San Francisco while he suffered from AIDS.

The Ugly: Liza Minelli. Even the great Halston wasn't able to make her look attractive in any fashion, or daylight! Thus he was frequently seen with her out under the flashing colored disco lights of night. Andy Warhol. Hideous friend of Halston was shown in numerous photographs, but we'll not know after watching this documentary how close the two were, how well they got along and what their common interests were.

And manages to leave all the sex and drugs out after flaunting that as the tag line Believe me the sex and drugs part would have been the only reason to make this film The film maker thinks he a form of Louis Theroux who ain't worth having a clone of anyway ... But would have made a more interesting film than this Liza Minelli denying knowing about the drugs and sex in Studio 54 ... Give me a break This really is a complete fiasco that is too scared to tell the truth ... About anything Lets just hope this creep never gets the chance to make another one of these things ... Whatever they are And the most of the people involved in the interviews need to learn a bit about honesty or just not bother

Please read the other reviews, because I cannot fully put into words just how awful this is. Coming of age in NYC in the late 70s and early 80s, I absolutely *adored* Halston! Now, what a muscle car and Halston have to do with one another is the first of some truly appalling moments to come. The director is the rudest Southerner I have ever seen, was completely ill-prepared to meet some of the biggest names in fashion, had zero sense of fashion history... Only the archival footage makes this bearable, and, even then, just barely. Watch the divine Netflix "Halston" instead!