Harvey Weinstein and Liza Minnelli usher in new era of Halston

It was the most hotly anticipated show of New York Fashion week so far - the rebirth of the iconic 1970s label, Halston, favourite of Jackie O, Bianca Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minnelli. Five designers have tried over the years to bring back the Halston look since Roy Halston Frowick gave up the label in the 1980s (he later died in 1990), and all have failed. Would a sixth designer, Marco Zanini, be able to reinvent successfully the Halston style for a new era? The answer appears to be yes, but...

Zanini, head-hunted from Milan where he spent the last eight years as Donatella Versace's second-in-command, is backed by film producer Harvey Weinstein and Jimmy Choo's Tamara Mellon, a fan of vintage Halston, who are hoping the designer can recapture the spirit the brand once personified: cool, urban, glamorous and - in the era of Studio 54 - decadent. They are believed to have gambled £22m on buying the name.

According to first reports, Zanini has the look just right: evening-wear was simple and sculptural, with lots of floor-length draped jersey and bare shoulders; daywear was demure and elegant, with high-waisted trousers and crepe-de-chine blouses the key look.

Another report praised the "laid-back quality that is sure to resonate with the LA crowd and Weinstein's stable of starlets". Most important, Liza Minnelli, who wore Halston the first time round, and was in the front row for yesterday's show (above, next to Weinstein, his wife Georgina Chapman and Salman Rushdie's ex, Padma Lakshmi), proclaimed it "wonderful, sensual, and chic".

But does Zanini's Halston have a future? The original designs were revolutionary in the early 1970s for their spare and easy modernity. But, as one fashionista pointed out yesterday, the world has now gone almost completely casual. "You have to think the hype will be key to Halston finding its niche." And in that department, no one underestimates the power of Mellon and Weinstein.