Halston and Martha Graham's collaboration

Halston and Martha Graham's collaboration emerges through rehearsal visits, clothing, hospitality, and the social world surrounding Graham’s performances. The diary does not describe a formal commission between them; instead, it records Halston’s practical support and the way he helped bring Graham’s work into the orbit of his friends and guests.

A rehearsal visit and a hosted dinner

On March 19, 1979, Halston picked up Andy Warhol and took him to Graham’s studio, which Warhol thought was on 63rd Street, to watch her rehearse. Graham arrived and, in Warhol’s impression, seemed remarkably youthful. The visit placed Halston alongside Graham in her working environment, not merely at a party or premiere. Afterwards, Halston brought the group to his home for dinner, making hospitality part of the relationship the diary records.

Their conversation moved between the demands of Graham’s career and the condition of her body. She was preparing to travel to England for a command performance, as well as to Egypt and Lisbon; a performance in Iran had been cancelled amid the troubles there. Warhol wondered how she could sustain such arduous travel at her age. Graham discussed cosmetic surgery and said she might have an operation on her hands, which she described as stump-like. The passage captures the physical realities surrounding a celebrated performer without suggesting that Halston directed or managed her career.

Halston’s support also took a material form: Warhol notes that he gave Graham clothes. Their familiarity is visible in the ease of the gathering, though not in any detailed account of how the garments were chosen or used. At dinner, Halston served caviar and baked potatoes, with what Warhol described as an exceptionally large quantity of caviar. Warhol speculated that trouble in Iran might have affected its availability, but this remains his uncertainty, not an explanation supplied by Halston or Graham.

A shared connection to Pittsburgh

At dinner, Warhol told Graham that he had seen her dance in Pittsburgh in 1948. Graham replied that she was from Pittsburgh, a connection Halston had not known; Warhol records that Halston was surprised and said they had never really talked about it. This brief exchange reveals the limits as well as the intimacy of their association. Halston was close enough to give Graham clothes and host her, yet parts of her background had apparently not come up between them.

The episode also gives Warhol a distinct role as witness and conversational link. His memory of seeing Graham dance reached back to 1948, while her reply connected the performer at the studio to her origins in Pittsburgh. The diary does not present this exchange as the beginning of their relationship, but it shows how a shared evening could bring an undisclosed personal detail into Halston’s social circle.

London: performance and hospitality

In July 1979, the connection appeared again in London. After arriving at The Savoy, Warhol encountered Graham, who had come from Denmark and was visibly tired. They stood talking; Halston and Liza Minnelli had not yet arrived, travelling separately on the Concorde. The diary’s attention to rooms, arrivals, and reunions frames Graham’s performance within a busy social itinerary, while still recording a direct moment of conversation between her and Warhol.

For Graham’s opening at Covent Garden, Warhol joined a group assembled in Halston’s room before the performance. The party included Halston, Liza Minnelli, Steve Rubell, Victor Hugo, and others; Warhol records that they had seats in the front row of the balcony. Graham’s company performed three numbers, after which Minnelli appeared with The Owl and the Pussycat. Graham then gave a speech lasting about half an hour. Warhol noted that the group onstage wore beautiful Halston designs, placing Halston’s clothing visibly alongside Graham’s performance, although the diary does not specify who selected the garments or describe a costume commission.

Afterwards, the group went backstage to greet Graham and Minnelli, then attended a cocktail party in the bar area of Covent Garden. Halston hosted a private party at The Savoy later that evening. Warhol’s group initially missed the downstairs gathering, where Princess Margaret, Halston, Minnelli, and others were present, before realizing that the party extended across both floors. Halston was nervous, but Warhol described the party as a success. The performance and the reception together show how Halston’s hospitality extended the occasion beyond the theater and made Graham’s opening a shared social event.

The character of the collaboration

Across these episodes, the diary presents a relationship sustained by recurring gestures rather than by a documented formal project: Halston takes Warhol to watch Graham rehearse, hosts her at dinner, gives her clothes, and convenes friends around her London opening. Graham, in turn, appears both as a working artist—with rehearsals, travel, and a performance—and as a guest within Halston’s intimate social world.

The record’s details resist reducing the association to either fashion or celebrity. Graham’s demanding itinerary, her discussion of surgery, and the half-hour speech sit alongside Halston’s clothes, the front-row gathering, and the late party. The diary does not explain the private history of their friendship or establish the precise terms of their professional cooperation. It does show its public texture: practical generosity, shared time, and Halston’s designs accompanying a major performance.