Netflix has offered the first look at Ewan McGregor’s transformation into fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick for Ryan Murphy’s new series based on the 1970s icon.
In the new images revealed, the actor can be seen sketching out a design on a corkboard covered in other fashion drawings.
In another shot, the actor appeared in front of scrolls of fabrics wearing one of Halston’s signature turtlenecks while talking on the phone. The dramatized series, which is scheduled to premiere on May 14, tells the story of the influential American designer.
The streaming service also showed images of McGregor’s co-stars.
The cast includes Krysta Rodríguez, Rory Culkin, and Rebecca Dayan, who play Liza Minnelli, director Joel Schumacher, and Tiffany & Co. designer Elsa Peretti, respectively. The limited series will focus on Halston’s rise to become one of the most prominent designers of the 1970s and 1980s.
Subsequently, the story will follow the designer’s decline after becoming a celebrity of the era.
The show will delve into the “hostile takeover” of its eponymous brand that ended in a fight for control of Halston’s name, the Netflix synopsis read. The world of fashion was rocked by the important commercial dispute between the designer and his brand.
Bergdorf Goodman and other high-fashion department stores axed Halston products from their shelves after a controversial deal with JCPenny.
They believed that the brand had been cheapened by the association. During the following years, the label was acquired several times, and the famous designer’s control of the company rapidly diminished.
Roy Halston Frowick passed away in 1990 from AIDS-related complications, but it is unclear whether the Netflix series will cover his death.
Promotional images released by the company also show Rodriguez’s transformation into singer Liza Minnelli, who was close friends with the designer. The character wears a white turtleneck sweater with a red cardigan around her neck and displays her characteristic piercing gaze of bulging eyes with spiky Twiggy-style eyelashes.
Netflix also posted shots showing the hard-partying lifestyle of Halston, with scenes at the iconic Studio 54 nightclub.
In a recent interview with Vogue, Murphy said that he believed that McGregor “really connected with the pain of Halston and the longing of Halston, and how confusing it is to have to be an artist and a businessman at the same time.”
