Halston Heritage Closes on Madison Ave

It seems this was bound to happen for the house of Halston which moved into this space in 2013 which was a two-level space and potentially their flagship location in the United States, being located on Madison Avenue one would think this was the case. After visiting this location on a few occasions some things stayed the same. One; they still have a team of designers who are designing the collection and still have no premiere designer. Second it seemed that there always was a "sale" section within the store and third from what I could see there was little to no advertising for the brand.

Madison Avenue has always been a proving ground for fashion houses, and to their credit they did hold out for two years, but with a rent which clearly out paced store sales this was a disaster from the day the doors opened! Within the two years of being open there were no "fashion week" events to promote the line? The staff like most were "programmed" to claim strong sales but when fashion professionals needle them with questions they can't answer, sometimes you get the answers your looking for. The real question is, does the house hold on in other markets and who will take over the space? Located on the low 80's on Madison the location is out of the "sweet spot". For some reason after 79th Street it's hard to make a fashion house sucuessful.

Photo: R.Spiegel