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    "label": "Ford, Betty - Fashion - Designers - Halston",
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    "title": "Ford, Betty - Fashion - Designers - Halston",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1489757",
    "collections": [
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    "subjects": [
        "President (1974-1977 : Ford). Office of the First Lady. 1974-1977",
        "Clothing and dress",
        "Fashion"
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        "logicalDate": "1975-11-30",
        "month": 11,
        "year": 1975
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        "logicalDate": "1975-06-01",
        "month": 6,
        "year": 1975
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    "ocrText": "The original documents are located in Box 38, folder \"Ford, Betty - Fashion - Designers -\nHalston\" of the Sheila Weidenfeld Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\nCopyright Notice\nThe copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of\nphotocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Gerald Ford donated to the United\nStates of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.\nWorks prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public\ndomain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to\nremain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid\ncopyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\nSome items in this folder were not digitized because it contains copyrighted\nmaterials. Please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library for access to\nthese materials.\n4\nEW YORK Halston has achieved the Impossible American Dream.\nN\nHe is the U.S. designer who has most successfully combined business\nwith fashion, money and prestige. He is unique in this country.\nIn Europe, possibly only Dior and Cardin have built such solid busi-\nEnterprising\nness structures.\nJust seven years ago, 43-year-old Halston made the switch from custom\nmillinery to ready-to-wear. Then in 1973, the Norton Simon empire acquired\nHalston in a deal that sources put at about $11 to $12 million. Today, Halston\n\"I have a very healthy wholesale business, which is probably the most\nWOMEN'S WEAR DAILY, THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1975\nEnterprises, Inc., which is operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the giant\nprofitable better dress business on SA today, so they say. Also I have many\nconglomerate, has over a dozen divisions.\nfranchises.\nIt's what every designer dreams about:\n\"My perfume was the most successful launch in perfume history. It didn't\nYour own store; your own custom salon - dressing some of the country's\nopen up until last March, in really troubled times. Yet, in the first three\nmost fashionable women and superstars of films and stage; your own whole-\nmonths of business, we did $1,500,000. Bloomingdale's did $40,000 worth of\nsale ready-to-wear operation - dressing Ms. America; separate firms mak-\nbusiness in the first week. And that's good. It's been so successful, we're going\ning your own labeled luggage, perfume, furs, men's wear, separates, rain-\ninto the men's fragrance business for fall '76, which we're starting to develop\nwear, wigs, millinery; plus your own patterns (Halston's are for McCall's);\nright now. Then, we're adding other products to my perfume line for a com-\nyour own bed linens (Fieldcrest); becoming the official designer for the U.S.\nplete collection. It takes a long time to do that.\nOlympic team; and doing theatrical costumes (for the recent Martha Graham\nballet, \"Lucifer\").\n'M\ny men's wear collection is very extensive, and it has been most success-\nBut what is Halston's \"plus\" that has made all these business ventures not\nful, we expect the volume will be in the $3-million range.\nonly possible, but also profitable?\n\"Then, David Mahoney, Norton Simon chairman and president, asked me\nThere's no doubt the experience, exposure and education he received at\nif I would like to do the official Olympic uniforms. I said I'd love to. I didn't re-\nBergdorf Goodman in the late-'50s to the mid-'60s started him on his way to\nalize, at the time, what an enormous business this adds up to. Montgomery\nfame. As the store's designer of custom millinery, in a time when every fash-\nWard physically makes the uniforms and gives them to the 1,400 to 1,500 dif-\nionable woman wore a hat, Halston became a big name. And it was here he got\nferent performers. It is a major contribution. And through that donation,\nhis introduction to ready-to-wear, since Bergdorf's was the biggest American\nMontgomery Ward is able to merchandise the Olympic uniforms minus the in-\nbuyer of the European couture. Each season, BG would buy about 200 models\nsignias. It's always the same designs in the same fabrics, as the Olympic\nand Halston would buy about the same number of millinery originals. This\nones, merchandised in three or four different colors, sold through the catalog\nway, he got to see and know every major designer's work in France, Italy,\nand I get a percent.\nEngland and Spain. He not only knew their work, but learned how it prog-\n\"It has really turned out to be a huge project. It involves three separate\nressed from season to season.\ncollections, including the Pan-Am Games this summer in Sao Paolo, the win-\nAt Bergdorf's, he was involved with the store's large custom workroom,\nter games in 1976 in Innsbruck, Austria, and the summer games of '76 in Mon-\nwhich turned out the furs, made-to-order clothes and millinery. It was one of\ntreal. This means doing every single thing a player wears - a parade uni-\nthe largest ateliers in the world. Here he learned how to cope with a demand-\nform, dress uniform, a rain outfit, a leisure outfit, even his luggage. Just an\ning business consisting of 150 milliners, 12 sales women and six assistants.\nidea of the scope of this project is the leisure outfit for members: It must be\nMost importantly, he established contact with private clients, and he got to\nable to take them out to have a hamburger on the corner and still look right if\nknow what they needed, what they liked and they got to know him - Jackie O,\nthey go to a black-tie party at night. It's also a very difficult job because of all\nwhen she was first lady, Babe Paley, Jane Englehard, Marella Agnelli,\nthe figure problems involved. You have very short persons doing gymnastics,\nBrooke Aster, Doris Duke, Nan Kempner and lots more of the BP and CP.\nvery heavy persons who are weight-lifters, plus very tall athletes who play\nbasketball. The Olympic team is also made up of persons of all ages, not just\nut don't get the idea that Halston's success just happened. He worked at it\nyoung ones. It's a major effort.\"\nB\nand worked very hard. \"You just don't get a group of chic clients; you de-\nThen, he quickly ticks off other projects.\nvelop them,\" he says. \"You don't just get a Norton Simon to buy your five-\n\"Our fur business with A.C. Bang, a very substantial fur company, has\nyear-old business; you produce all the time.\"\nbeen very successful.\nAs Halston sees it:\n\"I have a loungewear business with Dorian. It is basically robes and at-\n\"I've done the impossible American dream for a designer. I have an up-\nhome-wear things. I didn't want it to be what most of the industry does -\ntown custom business where I can do a major order on the most luxurious lev-\nclothes to be worn out. This is basically robes, hostess-type dressing, a couple\nel for any woman in America. I've dressed the who's-who of the fashion world.\nof pajamas and that kind of thing. Very simple. It has been very successful.\n\"I have my own store downstairs, because I found I really wasn't repre-\n\"Then we have a new division called 'Halston Five' with Manhattan In-\nsented properly in the other stores. I wanted the customer to see what I was\ndustries. It's something I've wanted to do for years. It's basically shirts and\nblouses\nwith\na\ndoing. Remember, I opened my own store. which is unheard of\nDigitized from Box 38 of the Sheila Weidenfeld Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\nFashion Show\nWomen viewers who keep up with the jet set know\nwho Halston is and will undoubtedly be glued to their\nsets tomorrow morning (WRC-4 at 9) when \"Take It\nFrom Here' pre empts \"Not For Women Only, to\npresent a special one-hour show saluting the collection\nHalston has designed for U.S. athletes to wear in the\nupcoming winter and summer olympics. It's the first\nshow in Washington for the designer who did many of\nJacqueline Kennedy's clothes\nwho & Disconau 20 at and memory . MOV\nC-5.\nPOP: Jerry Gargia and his fine guitar. Page C-6.\nItash Star 11/3/75\nFashion.\nHalston\nWELL, COULD YOU JUST TOSS US A\nCAVIAR SPUD?\nThe folks who\nbring you \"Take It From Here\" on WRC-\nTV are just mad with excitement over\nthe Halston fashion show and luncheon\nthey' tossing next week for the Big H's\nJash. 10/24/75 Star\nsaid he did it for his image. A friend beg-\nged to know what a cheap knock-off\nThe\nEar\ncould possibly do for his image. \"$10,000\nworth of image I can afford,\" he said,\n\"$50,000 worth, I can't.\" Ear drives a\nToyota knock-off.\nfavorite Washington customers. Oatsie\nCharles will be there, and Eugenia Shep-\nEAR'S NOSE\n.\nIrene (pronounce it\npard, and Mrs. Averell Harriman and\nI-REE-NEE, please) Worth, the ac-\nBaroness Van Aerssen and Nicole\nSorry, dears, if Halston didn't put you on\nand old novels by Vina del Mar. Ear will\ntress, claims she can't act at all unless\n'Amecourt and maybe even Betty Ford,\nhis list, you're out.\nbe happy to send its \"Too Dull\" file.\nshe's wearing a scent she finds' compat-\nwho wore a Halston the night she had a\ndate with Woody Allen Ridgewell's will\nCHECK THE LIFEPOATS\nAND $40 000 T EET OVER FOR A NEW\nible with the character she's playing.\nucnt"
}