George Halley (couturier)

His first job in New York was as an assistant to Baron Max von Waldeck, a designer from Austria.

I must say they were the most beautiful gowns I have ever seen or owned.”[1] Halley then started working as a porter at Lord & Taylor, but soon moved to draping the store's windows for Christmas.

[2] His first own collection consisted of "romantic" gowns in silk and satin that evoked the antebellum South.

[5] Halley was introduced to his future wife, Claudia Morgan, by Yvonne Presser, who was later known as the highest-paid runway model.

Morgan told Halley that she had heard he could find good clothes for low prices, and asked him to buy her a cocktail dress on a limited budget.

He made several of the dresses his friend Julie Wilson wore in her cabaret performances, including the one pictured in her New York Times obituary.

In 2015, he was listed among the 10 designers to add to one's vintage collection: “Feathers, crystals, hand painted fabrics and fine workmanship are all things to expect from a George Halley gown.”[9] Several of his pieces are listed in the collection of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Halley had been a customer and good friend of Grauman, whose company (operating from the 1930s to the 1980s) specialized in work for high fashion designers, theatrical productions, and the Ringling Brothers Circus.

“Coty Awards Are Voted to George Halley and Luba of Elite,” The New York Times, June 21, 1968.

“Halley riding fashion world crest,” Beaver County Times, December 4, 1971.

“Halley: ‘It's time for women to conform in dressing,’” The Palm Beach Post, March 14, 1971.

“The 10 Designers to Add to Your Vintage Collection,” Harper’s Bazaar, August 6, 2015. http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/designers/g6046/cherie-federau-shrimpton-couture-top-vintage-designers/ (accessed 1/1/18).

“Julie Wilson, Sultry Cabaret Legend and Actress, Dies at 90,” The New York Times, April 6, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/arts/music/julie-wilson-sultry-cabaret-legend-and-actress-dies-at-90.html?ref=topics (accessed February 12, 2018).

“Yvonne Presser Dies at 78,” Women’s Wear Daily (2012), http://wwd.com/business-news/human-resources/model-yvonne-presser-dead-at-78-5883368/ (accessed December 28, 2017).