Adapted from the 1991 book Simply Halston by Steven Gaines, the series was ordered by Netflix in September 2019 and premiered on May 14, 2021.

[1][2] In January 2019, it was announced that Legendary Television and Killer Films had put in development Simply Halston, a miniseries based on the life of Halston that would be based on the book of the same name by Steven Gaines, with Ewan McGregor set to star as Halston and the series to be written by Sharr White and directed by Daniel Minahan.

[5] In September 2019, Ryan Murphy revealed to Time that he had signed onto Halston as an executive producer and that the series had been ordered by Netflix under his overall deal at the company.

[1] On February 18, 2020, Murphy announced on a since deleted Instagram post that in addition to McGregor starring, other cast members of Halston included Krysta Rodriguez as Liza Minnelli, Rory Culkin as Joel Schumacher, Rebecca Dayan as Elsa Peretti, Sullivan Jones as Ed Austin, David Pittu as Joe Eula, Gian Franco Rodriguez as Victor Hugo,[7][8] and Maxim Swinton as Young Roy Halston.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Ewan McGregor brings megawatt charisma to match Halston's vibrant recreation of a fashion era, but the series' glib treatment of the legendary designer's interior life yields a lot of style with little substance.