suit, 2-piece
date: label: Date made
content: 1978-1985
name: label: maker
content: Halston
notes: label: Description
content: This suit made for Katharine Graham by Halston sometime between 1978 and 1985 gives insight into the person for whom it was made and the designer. Katharine Graham indeed became a woman of power, but she did not start out that way. Born in 1917, there was no expectation for her to run a business. She was educated at Vassar College and the University of Chicago. In 1933, her father, Eugene Meyer, purchased The Washington Post. She started working for the Post in 1938. By 1940, she married Philip Graham, a Harvard trained lawyer, who became publisher of the Post in 1946. The Grahams socialized regularly with Washington’s powerful and wealthy including presidents, cabinet members, intellectuals and celebrities. Upon her husband’s death in 1963, and as much of a surprise to herself as everyone else, Katharine Graham stepped in and took over the newspaper and the company. She was publisher until she took on the title of chairman of the board from 1973 to 1991. She made journalistic history with her decisions regarding The Pentagon Papers and Watergate.
label: Description
content: Roy Halston Frowick known simply as “Halston” had a fourteen year designer-client relationship with Katharine Graham. Originally from Des Moines, Iowa, he started his career as a milliner. He was educated at Indiana University and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1958 he was discovered by Lilly Dache, who hired him to work for her in New York. In hardly more than a year, he had moved on to head the millinery department at Bergdorf Goodman. It is there he became more widely known by designing the pill box hats which became a signature item for Jacqueline Kennedy during her husband’s presidential campaign. With impeccable timing, Halston switched gears to making clothes. In 1966, he showed his first collection, which included hats with each ensemble. He won multiple Coty American Fashion Critic Awards and had a thriving business nearing $30 million of retail sales. Two reasons for Halston’s success were his fresh look of simple lines and his personality of socialite and self-promoter. Halston designs were very simple ensembles featuring slim trousers, tunics and long jackets. He favored pliable materials like wool jersey and velvet. He was known as the “Great American minimalist.” In the 1970s, he was famous for dressing his celebrity clients in floating kaftans. Ultrasuede became a favored fabric from which he fashioned simple shirtwaist dresses and trench-styled coats. The ultrasuede shirtwaist was a clear winner, priced at $360.00. Halston sold over 42,000 of them. By the early 1980s, he was still designing slim silhouettes adding the variety of bias cut toga style dresses and high cost beaded gowns.
label: Description
content: Halston said of himself, “You’re only as good as the people you dress.” The popularity that brought such a range of customers to him came from the trust he created among his following. His client list included women of all ages and shapes which read like a mixture of who’s who of the Hollywood hip, the super-wealthy, and the business and politically connected. A sampling of his clients included Lauren Bacall, Candice Bergan, Bianca Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Onassis, Doris Duke, Betty Ford, Barbara Walters, and Katharine Graham. In 1982, Halston agreed to create a line of reasonably priced clothing and accessories for J. C. Penny. With that news, Bergdorf Goodman refused to represent his higher priced line and his business turned sour. Halston Enterprises was taken over and Roy Halston Frowich ceased to have legal control of the Halston brand. In 1985, he closed his business, and in 1990, he died at the age of fifty-eight.
label: Description
content: This two-piece suit is constructed of red of red lightweight wool in a subtle basket weave pattern. The jacket features a funnel collar which creates a V-shaped neckline. The center front opening of the jacket has curved edges at the bottom forming an inverse of the V-shape at the neckline. It is fastened with three plastic buttons matching the color of the suit fabric. The long set-in sleeves are finished in a placket at the bottom with a single smaller red button. Curved princess seams in the front and back give shape to the jacket. The jacket length is 27 inches which would have hung slightly below mid-hip. The four gore skirt is set into a waist band that closes with a red zipper and flat hook-and-eye. The skirt is 26 inches long. The center and back skirt gores are wider than the side gores giving it an A-line shape.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Business
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Costume
label: See more items in
content: Clothing & Accessories
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Elizabeth Ann Hylton in memory of Katharine Graham
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2004.0018.002
label: accession number
content: 2004.0018
label: catalog number
content: 2004.0018.002
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Suit, 2-Piece
label: Object Type
content: Main Dress
label: Object Type
content: Woman
label: Object Type
content: Suit
label: Object Type
content: Entire Body
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: center back jacket: 27 in; 68.58 cm
label: Measurements
content: skirt waistline: 31 3/4 in; 80.645 cm
label: Measurements
content: skirt center back: 26 in; 66.04 cm