Robin Givhan. Photograph by: Helayne Seidman, via The Cut

The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History, 2015. Courtesy of Flatiron Books.

– Patricia Mears noted that during the 1970s, “The rules were thrown out…I think [Yves Saint Laurent and Halston] were looking for a vocabulary, something to define the decade.” How did the Battle of Versailles help to define the 1970s?

RG: I think the Battle of Versailles captured the sense of transformation that was such a part of the 1970s. Each of the American designers, in their own way, reflected change. Anne Klein captured the new feminism. Halston was part of the rise of celebrity culture. Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta both were examples of the distance that American designers and the American fashion industry had come. Stephen Burrows spoke to the social liberation. And certainly the black models—and their impact on the show and influence on the other models—captured the tumultuous racial climate.

American models walking during the Battle of Versailles fashion show, 1973. Courtesy of Flatiron Books.

Models Bethann Hardison and Ramona Saunders wearing Stephen Burrows, the Battle of Versailles fashion show, 1973. via Decades

– What similarities and differences do you see in American fashion today in comparison to the years leading up to 1973, when the Battle of Versailles took place?

RG: American fashion is still sorting its way through the concept of diversity. It’s still figuring out how it wants to be perceived on the world stage. Is about commercial clout? Is it a form of mass entertainment? And how does creativity factor into it? The biggest difference is probably that American designers no longer feel that they must in some way acknowledge Paris as a rite of passage. Paris is still held in high esteem but it does not dictate.

Still from Versailles ’73: American Revolution, 2014.

– While conducting research for the book, were there any aspects of French and/or American fashion history that surprised you?

RG: I was surprised to discover there had been a formal fashion show at the White House hosted by Lady Bird Johnson. That suggested to me that fashion was held in great regard and that it was not the third rail of politics that it is now.

White House fashion show, 1968. Still from public domain newsreel footage via YouTube / Slate

– Are there any behind-the-scenes stories from working on the book you’d like to share with us?

RG: Well, it was always easy to go plummeting down a rabbit hole as one discovery led to another. It was easy to get distracted by some delightful tangent. Also, there was a lot about Stephen Burrows that I couldn’t fit into the book. He is a quiet, introspective man—supremely interesting. His business didn’t survive but his influence is quite something. He should write his memoir.

Pat Cleveland wearing Stephen Burrows. Photograph by: Charles Tracy. via Stephen Burrows Tumblr

Stephen Burrows’s illustration of lettuce-edge dresses for Coty fashion show, 1973. via Museum of the City of New York

– Eleanor Lambert proposed the idea of the Battle of Versailles, and FIT Library’s Special Collections recently acquired Ms. Lambert’s archive. What made Ms. Lambert so central to fashion in New York?

RG: This book wouldn’t have been possible without access to Eleanor Lambert’s papers. She was, as I said in the book, a woman with “bulldozer determination” and the heart of “P.T. Barnum.” She believed in American fashion and she was a consummate connector. She had relationships in politics, within the garment district unions, in high society, among artists and among the fashion designers themselves. All of those connections were necessary to make Versailles happen. I don’t know that anyone else could have pulled it off.

Eleanor Lambert, 1963. AP via Huffington Post.

Love this post? Share it on social media with the links below. Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s is on view for two more weeks, through April 18, 2015. Don’t miss it! Stay tuned for more, and tweet using #YSLhalston.
—MM

Installation, Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s. Exhibition design, Kimberly Ackert, 2015. Photographer: Eileen Costa © MFIT

This week we had the pleasure of interviewing architect Kimberly Ackert, the exhibition designer for Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s.

Kimberly Ackert was born and raised in Southern California and has a Professional Degree in Architecture from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She has worked in France, Switzerland and Australia and won the Mercedes T. Bass Rome Prize for Architecture. Her work has been internationally published and is known for its sensitivity to natural environments and use of naturally lit spaces. She has taught Architecture at Harvard, Cornell and Yale and is currently on faculty in both the Graduate School of Architecture and the Lighting Program at Parsons, the New School University. She lives in New York and heads her own design firm Ackert Architecture.

– Were there any themes from the designers that you chose to reflect in the exhibition design?

KA: As I became more familiar with both designers, I saw common themes but also divergent approaches. Halston was known as a minimalist, while Yves Saint Laurent tended towards exoticism, and I wanted to express these differences geometrically. Our office researched graphic art from the 70s and found a pattern of interlocking circles and squares that merged the minimal straight lines of Halston with the more dynamic curves of Yves Saint Laurent. The pattern ultimately inspired the design of the complex, multi-tiered platform composed of tubular steel, large plexi-glass panels, and curved metal mesh.

An initial concept sketch. © Kimberly Ackert

Graphic pattern.

Elevation, Ackert Architecture, 2015. © Kimberly Ackert

– The garments in the show are displayed beautifully, against a backdrop of white. Were there any special considerations to working with this color?

KA: I was not concerned about the whiteness of the space and thought one of the most beautiful platforms displayed flesh and peach-toned gowns. A bigger challenge was working with plexi-glass—which must be lit from behind—so as not to produce glare or reflection for the viewer.

Installation, Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s. Exhibition design, Kimberly Ackert, 2015. Photographer: Eileen Costa © MFIT

– Were there any aspects of 1970s design or architecture that you drew upon for YSL+Halston?

KA: White on white architecture and interiors were very big throughout the 1970s, both in the US and abroad, and has continued as a classic minimalist approach. I paid special attention to the work of Paul Rudolph, a well-known American architect, who had designed a townhouse where Halston lived on East 63rd Street. I was already familiar with Rudolph’s work and knew he was a master of the white interior, often featuring his own plexi-glass furniture and multi-leveled spaces. His architecture and interiors definitely captured the free-spirited vision and sexiness of the decade.

“Halston and Staff in His Paul Rudolph-Designed Apartment, New York, ” by Harry Benson via Gavel and Grand

– Do you have any favorite ensembles from the exhibition?

KA: I thought a couple of pieces really exemplified the era: the YSL “Gangster” suit, made in wool pin stripes and dressed with a polka-dot shirt, and the pale blue evening gown worn by Lauren Bacall. I like the freedom that women had in this time period to wear both a man’s suit and a 30s-inspired gown.

Saint Laurent Rive Gauche navy “gangster” style suit, pinstripe wool, 1967, France, 78.57.6, gift of Ethel Scull

Halston evening dress, silk jersey, 1972, New York, 76.69.17, gift of Lauren Bacall

– We loved your answers to this question for Elegance in an Age of Crisis: Fashions of the 1930s. This time around, what 3 words describe this exhibition for you?

KA: Feminine, defiant, and modern.

Installation, Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s. Exhibition design, Kimberly Ackert, 2015. Photographer: Eileen Costa © MFIT

Stay tuned for more from Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s, and be sure to tweet us with #YSLhalston.

-MM

Installation, Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s. Exhibition design, Kimberly Ackert, 2015. Photographer: Eileen Costa © MFIT

Welcome to the exhibition blog for Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s! Each week we’ll be posting interviews, special insights from our curators, and more. Stay tuned…

– In your essay “History of a Collection” in the book Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s, you wrote that your interest in Halston began in the early 1970s. What was Halston’s allure for you at that time?

FD: Living in Boston in the 1970s (not the most fashionable city in the country), the single-named designer Halston started to surface in the fashion press. On frequent trips home to NYC, shopping Fifth Ave between 57th Street—starting at Bergdorf’s—and heading down to 39th—ending at Lord & Taylor—I saw that the Halston pieces at Bergdorf’s had this new, clean, fresh look. The simple shapes and “unfussy” construction started to resonate with me. These clothes were easy.

Halston looking through the window of the Madison Avenue boutique in New York at the display by Victor Hugo, 1976. Photograph: Malan Studio

– You worked on the first major Halston retrospective, Halston: Absolute Modernism, with the late Richard Martin (on view at MFIT from October 1991 – January 1992). What was your experience like working on that exhibition? Are there any special stories about Richard Martin and/or the show that you would like to share?

FD: I had just started working at the museum full time. To say working with Richard on the Halston exhibition was life-changing would be an understatement. Little did I know that working with Richard and Harold (Koda), on that exhibition would be the beginning of what I can only call my apprenticeship. Some 25 years, and over one hundred sixteen exhibitions later, I find that what I learned then still holds true today: a good exhibition starts with a good idea, a great thesis, and visually exciting objects to support the thesis. In terms of organizing an exhibition, one of most important things I learned was to see the relationship between objects as they were laid out in the exhibit space and to always look at the negative spaces between the groupings. As for Halston, I learned about “process”—that each season does not have to be a completely new theme—ideas and designs can be revisited, re-worked, and built upon. I would recognize this process later in the work of the late Geoffery Beene, and in more recent years, the work of Isabel Toledo.

Installation, Halston: Absolute Modernism, 1991. Photographer: Irving Solero. © MFIT

– Has your perspective on Halston changed at all since that time?

FD: Oh, yes! Halston was a larger-than-life celebrity, known for late nights at Studio 54 and tales of wild escapades. Yet the more I looked at Halston’s pieces, patterns, and support materials both here at MFIT and in other collections, the public persona receded into the background. Not completely—the lifestyle and the people surrounding Halston had certainly contributed to his design vocabulary. But by looking at his body of work, I really began to see what a good designer, what an innovator, he really was. If my perception of Halston, and fashion itself, had not changed over the last 25 years, I would be remiss in my work as a curator. Coming from a background in theater and fashion, I thought Halston was clever, innovative, and a good craftsman. Now, all these years later, I realize just how prolific and intelligent a designer he was—and how he, and YSL, were part of a shift in the fashion industry, whereby a fashion house could become a multi-million dollar business.

(left) Halston evening dress, brown silk jersey, 1972, USA, 76.118.3, Gift of Lauren Bacall.
(right) Halston evening dress, blue silk jersey, 1972, 76.69.17, Gift of Lauren Bacall. © MFIT

– The Halston Archives at MFIT are the most comprehensive collection of records of his work in the world. Are there any highlights from the archive you’d like to share with the public?

FD: For me, seeing the hundreds—no, thousands—of original sketches in Halston’s own hand was breathtaking. I am still in awe whenever I look at them…there are the actual first working (design) patterns with notes from Halston to his head tailor, including which model it should be made for, along with color and fabric swatches! The complete process, from design sketch to runway photos, can be seen—from illustrator Joe Eula’s watercolors, to photos of fittings in the workroom, to line drawings for the show. These show the final design choices and in what order the models will walk the runway. And finally, the runway photos of the show. A guilty pleasure for me, but one that adds to the whole story and history of Halston, is seeing notes from his clients—who were usually his friends as well—describing how much they loved his clothes and where and to what function they wore them to. And okay, we do have the fitting sheets, so I now know who was what size at any given time during the 1970s.

Halston, sketch, undated, The Halston Archives at The Museum at FIT © MFIT

Halston, sketch, 1977, The Halston Archives at The Museum at FIT © MFIT

– MFIT’s collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Halston is comprised of gifts from prominent donors, including Lisa Kirk’s donation of Halston and Marina Schiano’s donations of YSL haute couture and Rive Gauche. Can you elaborate on what makes these donations particularly important to MFIT’s collection?

FD: The Halston donation by the husband of the late Lisa Kirk, Mr. Robert Wells, is the single largest donation of Halston pieces to the museum—well over 100 ensembles. The donation also includes a number of very important Charles James ball gowns that Ms. Kirk, a Broadway star in the 1950s, wore on-stage and off. This donation shows the fierce loyalty and continuity of Halston’s clients. Marina Schiano’s donation of YSL pieces to the museum, while few in number, are important in that she was a model, muse, and close friend of the designer. In addition, Schiano became YSL’s New York representative for his boutiques and therefore was most likely wearing what was being purchased by the American Saint Laurent client.

– You also incorporated Halston’s work into A Queer History of Fashion and other MFIT exhibitions. With all your experience working with Halston’s designs, what is it, in your opinion, that makes him a great American designer?

His ease and simplicity, and the intelligence of his design sensibility. He understood the lifestyle of the active American woman. While there were many influences on Halston’s work: for example, 1930s bias-cut dresses, especially those of Mme. Gres, the simple shapes of ethnic dress—the sarong, tee-shaped tunics, capes, and ponchos—it was, I think, the influence of Claire McCardell’s work in the 1940s & 50s that made him a great designer of American style. McCardell truly understood the emerging post-WWII American woman. She simplified shapes, pared down construction, and eliminated complicated closures. McCardell also looked to ethnic dress for simple geometric shapes and basic sewing constructs that resulted in an easy and fast way of dressing, and allowed freedom for the active American woman on-the-go. The fact that you can see Halston’s influence in the design vocabulary of today’s most innovative designers, like Ralph Rucci—who worked for Halston—and Isabel Toledo—whose design roots clearly echo Halstonian methodology—only attest to his place in American design history.

– Are there any behind-the-scenes stories you’d like to share from working on YSL+Halston and/or Halston: Absolute Modernism?

Only that I had great for respect for Patricia Mears and Emma McClendon, the exhibition’s co-curators, and it was fun working with them on this project. And the discovery that Halston and Yves Saint Laurent’s design lexicons crossed paths more often than they diverged.

Joe Eula, illustration of Elsa Peretti, Loulou de la Falaise, Pat Ast, and Berry and Marisa Berenson, undated, The Halston Archives at The Museum at FIT. © MFIT

Stay tuned for more insights from MFIT curators, and be sure to tweet us with #YSLhalston. Love this interview? Share it on social media with the links below.

-MM