Halston sold his name for 16 million dollars. Eleven years later it fired him
The name-versus-assets story, 1973 edition. In November 1973 Norton Simon bought Halston Ltd. for a reported $16 million, trademark and design services included, with a contract that let them put his name on things he didn't design. In 1983 came the six-year JCPenney line reported at $1 billion, pieces from $24, and Bergdorf Goodman, where he'd started in the hat salon in 1959, stopped stocking him for it. In 1984 Halston Enterprises removed Halston, and he lost the right to design or sell under his own name. He spent 1984 to 1988 trying to buy it back as the trademark passed from Esmark to Beatrice to Revlon. The name kept trading. He didn't design as Halston again.