THE APPAREL OFT PROCLAIMS THE MAN (HALSTON)

According to John Galliano: "The joy of dressing is an art."

But what about the artists responsible?

Producer Ryan Murphy and director Daniel Minahan have teamed up for a five part exploration of the life of a true artist.

Iowan-born designer Roy Halston Frowick was propelled to fame by a pillbox hat he dreamt up for Jackie Kennedy before she was an Onassis.

The hat which was famously worn at the 1961 Presidential inauguration was a springboard for a successful career that would see him feted by Liza Minnelli, Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger before succumbing to drug addiction and HIV after years of decadence.

Based on Steven Gaines' 1991 book 'Simply Halston,' Minahan's five part Netflix miniseries casts Ewan McGregor as the Des Moines-born designer.

Grabbing the opportunity to camp it up on a grandiose scale, the Scottish actor acts out a classic rise and fall story about a designer who had his moment in the sun but has since over time overshadowed by the longevity of other brands.

If Murphy and Minahan's series is an attempt to reclaim his place in fashion industry, does it succeed?

At the start of Minahan's series, McGregor's Halston achieves notoriety not just for the Jackie Kennedy hat but the costumes he has created for Krysta Rodriguez's Liza Minnelli.

Worn in her 1972 concert film, 'Liza with a Z,' it is the start of a beautiful friendship between the designer and his muse.

Working with David Pittu's illustrator Joe Eula and Rebecca Dayan's Italian jewellery designer Elsa Peretti, he builds a reputation as a brilliant talent.

However his big moment comes when he is engaged by Kelly Bishop's fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert to take part in what would become known as "the Battle of Versailles' - a kind of Ryder Cup of fashion in which America's best designers take on Europe's in Paris.

Alongside Elena McGhee's Anne Klein, Micah Peoples' Stephen Burrows, Peter Gregus' Bill Glass and Juan Carlos Diaz's Oscar de la Renta, a rather insecure Halston and his team fly the flag for the United States against the likes of Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Marc Bolan and Emanuel Ungaro.

But with the odds and also many of his American contemporaries stacked against him, he has an ace card up his sleeve - getting Liza to appear in his show and he blows everyone out of the water with his designs which precede Oscar De La Renta's.

Versailles provides another seminal moment in Halston's career, with him striking a deal with Bill Pullman's philanthropist David J Mahoney to help him run the business.

The deal with Mahoney is struck on the basis that he will never let him feel "underappreciated, underfunded, unprotected and unsafe".

Inevitably, though, there are clashes as Mahoney tries to get him to fully exploit the commercial potential of the Halston brand, designing luggage, perfumes and department store clothes.

As Halston's brand grows, so does the tension between his creative instincts and commercial obligation.

However another significant factor in his decline is his extravagant lifestyle which increasingly sees him partying in Studio 54 and consuming copious amounts of cocaine morning, noon and night.

The designer falls for Gian Franco Rodriguez's obnoxious Venezuelan window dresser Victor Hugo who gathers plenty of blackmail material about their sex life, leads a promiscuous life of his own and leeches off his boyfriend's fame and fortune while throwing tantrums.

With so much partying, inevitably Halston's work starts to suffer but will his business eventually crash?

Minahan and his writers Murphy, Ian Brennan, Sharr White, Ted Malawer, Tim Pinckney and Kristina Woo sketch out a typical rise and fall story and there is plenty of diva behaviour as well from Halston and others.

In fact there is so much diva behaviour, it sometimes gets a bit tiresome.

While McGregor brings his undoubted charisma to his Golden Globe nominated role of Halston, you keep wishing there was a bit more to the story and his character than a predictable tale about cocaine blunting a great talent.

McGregor, Pullman, Dayan, Pittu, Bishop and Gian Franco Rodriguez all play their part in chronicling his decline but the scripts don't really enable them to set the screen on fire.

Krysta Rodriguez, though, impresses as Liza Minnelli and it is fun to see Vera Farmiga and Rory Culkin appearing in minor roles - the former playing a parfumier, the latter playing the late costume designer turned movie director Joel Schumacher.

Stylishly made, you feel 'Halston' is a glossy affair but much less substantial than it ought to be.

Over five episodes it feels like a diversion and amid all the whining, you find yourself switching off from what could be an illuminating look at the tension between creativity and commercialism in the fashion industry.

But as it reaches its conclusion, you realise Minahan and Murphy's collaboration is not nearly as memorable as it should be.

And that's not a shame, it's a crime darling.

('Halston' was made available for streaming on Netflix on May 14, 2021)