"Am I businessman or an artist?" asks American designer Roy Halston Frowick (Ewan McGregor, who, for his performance, won the 2021 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie), in the 2021 Netflix series, "Halston." Titled after its subject, Frowick is better known mononymously as Halston. "Why not both?" retorts American publicist and "Empress of Seventh Avenue," Eleanor Lambert (Kelly Bishop). It is in this second episode ("Versailles") that Lambert expertly navigates Halston to resolution of his identity crisis with an introduction to David J. Mahoney (Bill Pullman), chairman of Norton Simon, a consumer products conglomerate in search of "magic." To successfully tempt the one-time milliner to sell his namesake to Norton Simon, Mahoney not only offers panacea to the myriad issues facing the fledgling fashion house, but the promise of glory. "I will make you so intrinsic to American culture that nobody will remember a time when there wasn't Halston." It is in the penultimate episode of the series ("The Party's Over"), when Joe Eula (David Pittu), creative director at Halston, declares, "Halston's name is on everything, loungewear, furniture, luggage, linens—wigs for God's sake!" that the audience can fully appreciate just how Mahoney made good on his promise to convert Halston from pronoun to noun. In a word—licensing.

Licensing? The concept is simple enough. On one hand is the celebrated brand (licensor), whose identity—its most valuable resource—is host to limitless merchandising opportunities. On the other hand is the manufacturer (licensee), who, having recognized the possibilities, is willing to fashion the brand's name and logo (intellectual property) on any manner of consumer products. The licensor may then lease its intellectual property to the licensee for a predetermined term in a defined territory, in exchange for a royalty on sales of the product developed by the licensee and approved by the licensor for distribution and sale. All such terms are carefully articulated, and each parties' respective obligations formalized in a license agreement. When drafted by a non-adversarial attorney that is not just a mitigator of risk, but a pragmatic business partner, such an agreement will establish reasonable expectations for many variables, not limited to the product's aesthetics and quality, or the merchandising and marketing strategies of the license. The marriage between the licensing parties must then be properly tended, and upon continued commitment to each other in accordance with the terms negotiated and agreed, there is opportunistic growth.