TV review – Halston: Ewan McGregor fashions fab tale of flamboyance and flowers

I had never heard of Roy Halston and if I’d had to guess I’d say, from the name, he was a journeyman centre half who played for Nottingham Forest.

Nothing could be further from the truth; Halston was actually a fashion designer from the 1960s and ’70s who had a lifestyle which made Elton John look like a particularly devout Quaker.

Halston – he dropped the Roy – became famous after creating that pillbox hat look as sported by Jackie Kennedy to her husband’s inauguration in 1961.

Ewan McGregor plays the man who was America’s premiere fashion guru in a glitzy and rather fabulous biopic series which features the giddy highs and crushing lows Halston experienced.

Whereas biopics such as Lincoln reflect a life full of sober gravitas, Halston reflects an existence of glamour and excess.

Halston was a man who spent as much on flowers as he did on class-A substances.

“Orchids,” Ewan brilliantly exclaims, “are part of my process!”

Beneath the glitz, and the whiteout caused by far too much cocaine, Netflix’s comedy drama shows a battle between art and business.

Halston certainly took a lot of substances but his own substance is challenged when money was dangled in front of him.

Well, I suppose you have to fund that orchid habit, somehow.

Halston, Netflix