So describes director Daniel Minahan of Roy Halston Frowick, a larger-than-life, self-made man who helped put American fashion on the map — only to lose it all, name included.
The series is arranged in such a way that each episode focuses on a different collection: the collection that went to Versailles for the famed, WWD-dubbed “Battle of Versailles,” the fragrance launch, the J.C.
“Jeriana and I had to be really smart about what we wanted to show because we were telling the story of his evolution through the costumes, and the thing that was tricky about it was Halston’s clothes are so timeless,” Minahan says.
McGregor, calling in from Los Angeles where he is shooting the Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” says he didn’t know much about the designer prior to taking on the role.
“I worked with him in my studio and he worked with my tailor and had sessions on dressmaking 101.
She used the WWD archives heavily in her research process, studying his reviews, images of his collections and also familiarizing herself with his peers of the time.
“People think of it as such a simple uniform — a black turtleneck and black pants, and meanwhile it’s really much more nuanced from that,” she explains.
“I remember getting really excited the first time I got fit for the ‘I Gotcha’ dress,” Rodriguez says.
They were coming from an era of having to look a certain way of the foundation garments and the girdle and bras and panty hose, and molding a woman, and he hit at a time when it was time to celebrate a woman.