The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) hosted a special event on May 15 where the third With Love Halston scholarship awards were given out. Lesley Frowick, the late American fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick’s niece, established the scholarship in spring of last year with a lavish event at New York City’s National Arts Club to celebrate and honour his fashion legacy. Members of Halston’s inner circle and family attended that first event, along with FIT students, Halstonettes Pat Cleveland and Karen Bjornson, designers Naeem Khan and Ralph Rucci, and the illustration community of Fida, whose members had created Halston-inspired artwork especially for the occasion. Since then, the With Love Halston scholarship has been given to Istituto Marangoni Miami students. It then made a comeback in November.last week to FIT.
Ken Downing, the creative director of Halston, Fern Mallis, the brains behind the conception of New York Fashion Week, Audrey Schilt and Nancy Stone, the first and last in-house illustrators of Halston, Fred Rottman, the workroom manager of Halston, and academics from Fashion Institute of Technology were among the members of the jury charged with choosing the winning looks.
The 8 students’ works carry on the designer’s language of Ultrasuede, languid American glamour, and Studio 54. Downing showed excitement in his opening remarks on how a new generation will represent Halston and capture the zeitgeist through a modern perspective of Instagram, TikTok, and celebrity culture. LesleyFrowick remarked on Halston’s kindness both as an uncle and as the owner of his atelier and the With Love Halston non-profit organisation, which carries on this giving mentality.
Halston’s heritage is preserved at FIT for the next generation of fashion designers.
As they worked with yardage given by Toray of the late designer’s preferred fabric Ultrasuede, the students profited from having access to FIT’s extensive Halston archives throughout the design process. The Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation and Tiffany & Co. were other event sponsors. Each student used the shirtwaist, refined minimalism, and how the fabric cuts like butter with no fraying to describe their work. Cher Mouradzadegun, a student, wore a floor-length flared shirtdress in caramel colour with crisscrossing overlays at the bust.
inspired by a dress the designer had created for Grace Kelly whereas Nuo Cheng approached Halston’s legacy through his lens of working in a vintage store. With his caped ensemble in a sophisticated platinum hue accentuated with a floppy-brimmed hat he hoped to capture how Halston created a total vision for women, accessories included.
