Bcbg Max Azaria

Designer drama

Halston's new CEO hasn't started work yet, and he already has a mob of angry shareholders on his hands.

After months of chaos and infighting that culminated in the recent departure of Harvey Weinstein and Sarah Jessica Parker, the flailing fashion label said yesterday that Ben Malka, the former president of BCBG Max Azria, will become Halston's new chairman and chief executive.

Sources close to the situation told The Post that Malka has big plans for Halston, aiming to revive the brand with a multi-tiered retailing and licensing strategy. Armed with a war chest of $20 million from Hilco Consumer Capital, the turnaround bid will be capped with the hiring of a new designer to resuscitate Halston's runway for fall 2012 collection, according to a source briefed on the plans.

As of yesterday, however, all of that was still news to many of the privately owned fashion label's longtime equity investors. They say that they've been kept in the dark by controlling shareholder Hilco, which hasn't returned their phone calls and e-mails.

The minority investors complain they had been trying in vain to learn whether Halston would make another cash-intensive attempt at high fashion, or instead license out the brand to a slew of department stores and discount chains like Walmart and Target.

"If Hilco has an amazing idea, I'd love to hear it, but I haven't heard anything," one shareholder griped. "The lack of communication is not acceptable in a deal of this magnitude."

The big worry, according to several investors, is that Halston's board of directors will cut an inside deal while failing to properly inform shareholders of at least two other bids that were made for the label.

In a written statement yesterday, a Halston spokeswoman said "the board approved [the deal] and representatives from a majority of shareholders approved it as well." There was no further comment.

The brewing conflict -- which, according to one source, could spark a lawsuit invoking "small shareholders' rights" -- follows bitter negotiations to refinance Halston that forced pricey payouts to bigwigs by the money-losing label.

As exclusively reported by The Post, Hilco had to pay Sarah Jessica Parker more than $3 million to end her multiyear contract as designer for the label's lower-priced "Heritage" line.

One point Parker was upset about was a disagreement over pricing of the line. She wanted to price it at $400-$700; the company wanted to keep it at $200-$300. The company won out, and Parker soon departed.

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