Back in Style

Halston's iconic 1979 racerback office chair, designed by SOM, is still the height of fashion

- HANNAH MARTIN

THE STORY BEHIND AN ICONIC DESIGN

The year was 1978, and on the 21st floor of the Olympic Tower, a midtown Manhattan glass-and-steel monolith by architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick—Halston to most—was decorating his office and showroom. “High up in New York, everything is gray,” the disco-era legend, who dressed Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, and Bianca Jagger, later explained. “I needed something that would stabilize the space so the room wouldn’t float.” His answer? Red—all over.