The fashion documentary is enjoying a moment, following the critical and commercial successes of R.J. Cutler's "The September Issue" and Matt Tyrnauer's "Valentino: The Last Emperor." "Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston," a look at the designer's rise and fall, screened on the closing night of the Tribeca Film Festival. The screening was followed by a panel of Halston's associates-Andre Leon Talley, designer Ralph Rucci, model Pat Cleveland and the film's director Whitney Sudler-Smith-discussing Halston's legacy, with Tyrnauer moderating.

Demand for the tickets, which were offered exclusively to American Express cardmembers, ran high and sold out quickly; some fashion industry sources told us of pleading phone calls scrounging for extra tickets in the week before the premiere. Attendees included Sarah Jessica Parker, currently a creative executive on the re-vamped Halston Heritage line, Mad Men's Bryan Batt, Marchesa's Georgina Chapman, and actress Melissa George.

First-time director Sudler-Smith shares screen time with his subject and interviewees such as Liza Minnelli and Vanity Fair's Bob Colacello. The film is framed as Sudler-Smith's journey to discover through Halston, the lost secret of '70s-era decadence and bohemianism, perhaps as way to inject it into his own life. The journey motif is illustrated by shots of the director traveling to destinations in his vintage Trans Am. "I always wondered who was this mythical character who was always with these beautiful models," he said prior to the screening. "It left an imprint with me of this mythological time and place. I thought we have to do a movie about this: the glamor, the decadence but also this guy was a true artist."

"I didn't know a lick about fashion. I went into this thing cold," the director, whose hair color and style constantly morphs throughout the film, added.

While no portrait of Halston would be complete without mentioning the drug use and carefree sexuality that pre-dated the AIDS-era, Halston's closest friends would prefer that the focus remain on Halston's legacy as the designer who ushered in American minimalism.

"His clothes were like music, like being wrapped in some beautiful tune," Pat Cleveland said during the panel. "Each part of fabric would touch a different note on your body and it would make you want to move in a certain way."

"That's how it felt to wear those clothes, as though they were dancing on your body," she said. The former Halstonette wore a purple ruffled outfit from her trip to China with the designer, when he sought to introduce American sportswear to the then-untapped Asian market.

Insiders agreed that Halston's fall was precipitated by his collaboration with retailer JC Penney, the first time high fashion dabbled in mass markets. Now that every designer from Karl Lagerfeld to Zac Posen have dabbled in high-low lines without hurting their brand, the panelists agreed: Halston was just ahead of his time.