Sarah Jessica Parker said to partner with Halston

The Associated Press, Friday, January 15, 2010, 2:39pm (PST)

NEW YORK (AP) -- Sarah Jessica Parker and Halston may be banking on fashion sequels: The storied designer label reportedly has hired the "Sex and the City" star in a creative role.

Halston is tapping Parker for its newly announced Halston Heritage collection, a less expensive extension of its signature collection, according to Women's Wear Daily.

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The company wouldn't confirm reports of the partnership, but did say an announcement of some sort was forthcoming within the next week. There was no immediate response to an e-mail to Parker's publicist Friday.

Halston's glitzy image from its heyday of the disco era — with the late Roy Halston Frowick turning out jersey jumpsuits and the like for the Studio 54 crowd — had become tarnished in recent years with a disappointing relaunch in 2008.

Parker, meanwhile, found herself without a home for her own once-popular line Bitten after retail partner Steve & Barry's filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors.

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But Parker is still considered one of the most influential celebrities in the fashion world and insiders think she and Halston would make good co-stars.

"If she is to come to Halston, I know that she will do an incredible job and finally get the brand back to being a Halston that is respectful of Mr. Halston and his legacy but also move it forward to what women today want to wear," says stylist and commentator Mary Alice Stephenson.

Parker's style-icon "SATC" character Carrie Bradshaw has already been shown in the trailer for "Sex and the City 2" in a white dress from Halston Heritage, a brand extension with retail prices ranging from $55 to $595.

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Marios Schwab remains the designer for the main line, which has a slot on the calendar at New York Fashion Week in February. Halston couldn't have hired just any boldface name as a partner, says Stephenson, who styled Parker for a memorable Harper's Bazaar cover with the actress — in Chanel — running across the Brooklyn Bridge. "She's probably the only actress who could pull this off."

Lindsay Lohan was tapped as artistic adviser to Emanuel Ungaro with much fanfare last fall; just weeks later her work for the label was trounced by fashion critics.

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"There's a big difference from this than Lindsay Lohan," says Suze Yalof Schwartz, Glamour magazine's executive fashion editor at large.

"Lindsay's name isn't synonymous with fashion, whereas when you think about Sarah Jessica Parker, you think about the clothes."

Schwartz considers Halston lucky to have Parker: "There would be no one better to revive that label."