Charles James — the designer honored Monday night at the Met Gala — was so broke at the height of his haute-couture career that he worked for Halston.
Fellow designer Jackie Rogers told me, “He was the greatest designer that America ever produced, and he had no money. He was getting paid by Halston, but he didn’t want to make those clothes.”
Rogers said in the ’70s, James would play hooky at her Jackie Rogers for Men store at 67th and Madison, a block south of Halston’s offices.
“Charlie would rush into my store and say, ‘Please Jackie, hide me.’ And he would hide out in the bathroom,” Rogers said.
Joe Eula, the late fashion designer who also worked for Halston, would arrive a few minutes later asking, “Have you seen Charlie?”
Rogers said James was a true genius. “Charlie draped. You can sketch, or you can drape. Sketching is bulls - - t,” Rogers said.
Sometimes a client will come in with a Charles James gown and ask Rogers to copy it. “I tell them, ‘Forget it. I wouldn’t know where to begin.’ ”