Dressed: The History of Fashion · Dressed Media

A Life Lived in Fashion with Halston Model, Muse and Archivist Chris Royer, Part I (Dressed Classic)

January 15, 2026·52 min·4 clips

Chris Royer thought she was talking to Halston's assistant—until Jackie Onassis arrived and she realized it was Halston all along.

The glamour is only the doorway. The excerpt clears out a Hollywood-flavored pre-roll, then settles into Dressed's promise to ask who, what, when, and why people get dressed. Halston comes in with plenty of weight: a major twentieth-century designer, arguably an early celebrity American name, and still the subject of books, exhibitions, and scrutiny. Then the talk gets wonderfully practical. The guest remembers being on payroll as a house model, with Halston and the workroom there at eight o'clock sharp while patterns and collection work began. The morning schedule mattered. Fittings, daily plans, silhouettes, and collection progress shaped the day, though he keeps making clear that the rhythm changed with the work. Halston Limited sounds almost personal. The 68th Street space was cozy and nice, until the company needed more people and simply outgrew it. Olympic Towers meant scale. Around 1978 or 1979, the workroom, creative staff, and corporate staff moved there while the shop and main salon stayed behind. A collection could run about 150 pieces, far bigger than many collections now. Process stays in the middle of it all: preliminary sketches, Joe Eula's drawings of the model turning into shapes, Halston's draping, and those lined-paper sketches sent to the workroom so staff knew what to build. Even the fashion-history parts keep landing back on bodies, rooms, schedules, staff, and the pressure of making clothes fast.

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