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For the better part of two decades, Donna Karan has been living quietly in the Hamptons—seen only occasionally here and there, in Sag Harbor’s Le Bilboquet or at Vera Wang’s Manhattan home to celebrate Jane Pressman’s book Barneys—mostly keeping to herself since selling her namesake brand in 2001.
She’s back this summer.
Karan, who pretty much ruled Seventh Avenue in the 1990s, is an executive producer Mr. Halstona new play about her old friend Halston, a Studio 54 adventurer whose dizzying rise and even more dramatic fall are given the stage treatment for the first time. “I saw a workshop Mr. Halston “Last summer at Bay Street Theater and I liked it so much, I wanted to participate,” Karan, 77, tells Rambling. The world premiere runs June 2-21 at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, which is, of course, located in Karan’s backyard.
The two go way back. They met at the Battle of Versailles in 1973 – the legendary confrontation between the kings of French fashion (Saint Laurent, Cardin, Givenchy, Dior, Ungaro) and their American moderns (Plass, de la Renta, Burroughs and Anne Klein, where Karan was then working as an assistant). No winner was announced, but Halston, who died in 1990 of AIDS, brought the house down by arranging a stunning performance by Liza Minnelli.
The film was written by Rafael Bacchetti and directed by Michael Wilson. Mr. Halston The film is set in the decadent decades of the 1970s and 1980s in New York. “He paved the way for what was to come,” says Karan.
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Also in the Rampling Reporter:
Dramathe just-opening Robert Pattinson-Zendaya dark rom-com has a serious problem.
This story appeared in the April 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
