The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2022 - Issue 31

bitefashion W hen American fashion designer Kevan Hall was appointed creative director of Halston in 1997, twenty years after he had begun his fashion ca- reer as an assistant to sportswear designer Harriet Selwyn, the New York-centric fashion world questioned his capabilities. His predecessor, Randolph Duke, had revived the fashion house after previous attempts by others before him failed, following the founder’s death. With only a few short months to present a spring collection, Kevan Hall had to prove them wrong. The November and subsequent February shows were met with praise from fashion critics, including Andre Leon Talley, then editor-at-large at Vogue, who raved, “He’s channelling Halston!” Hall’s chic, simple gowns in neutral colours ap- peared in Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman in New York. Having shopped at Saks when he was younger, Hall recalled, “I had a cashmere coat at age seven. We were dressed for church every Sunday, and I mean, we were dressed.” Inheriting his mother’s love of fashion, Hall was amazed by two of Motown’s belles on television. “I’d see Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and Diana Ross and the Supremes on Ed Sullivan, and I would pretend to re-design their costumes and wardrobes. I was seven and was always interested in fashion and design.” Yves Saint Laurent’s 1970s Ballet Russe collection also blew him away when he was a teenager. “It was the greatest collection of our time,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1999. He graduated from Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan, in 1975 and accomplished an AA (Associate of Arts) degree from the Fashion Institute of Design and Mer- chandising in Los Angeles, California. He also completed courses at the University of California and the Otis Art Insti- tute of the Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles. He then worked as a freelance designer for a girls’ junior sportswear brand, On Top of California, from 1980 to 1982. The following year, he launched Kevan Hall Couture, a line of evening wear whose fit model was his wife, Debbie, whom he met on his first day at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. “I literally carried the collection on my back to stores in San Francisco,” he stated. One of the designer’s mottos is, “I enjoy the design process from concept to execu- tion, but the most gratifying part is seeing my design come to life on a beautiful woman.” “I had a cash- mere coat at age seven” - Kevan Hall