Halston (2019)

Interesting facts

Halston is a 2019 American biographical documentary film written and directed by Frédéric Tcheng and produced by CNN Films and Amazon Originals. The film tells the story of the rise and fall of Roy Halston Frowick, one of America's most prominent fashion designers. The film features commentary by Liza Minnelli, Marisa Berenson, Joel Schumacher, Naeem Khan, Pat Cleveland, Karen Bjornson and other former models known as The Halstonettes. Appearing in archival footage are Halston, Jacqueline Kennedy, Brooke Shields, Andy Warhol and members of his family. The film premiered to generally positive reviews at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2019.

Production notes

In an interview given to The Creative Independent in 2019, Tcheng said he became interested in the project when he was approached by the producer, Roland Ballester, to become the director. Ballester told Tcheng that Lesley Frowick, Halston's niece, was going to serve as an executive producer for the documentary. At first glance, he politely declined, not wanting to do another fashion documentary.

Tcheng reported that the archival footage used in the film was courtesy of Lesley Frowick, who had 215 copies of his private recordings that were presumed to be lost. After she interviewed with the documentary team, and felt confident the film wouldn't portray her uncle in a biased or negative light, she gave them the contact information to Halston's inner circle.

The project started in April 2017 with intensive research. Tcheng said the documentary team created a catalogue of Halston's life and significant life events. He rated the events on a scale of most important to least important and mapped his life on a big board. He had another board where people were listed he wanted to interview who could give information about specific life events.

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