Nicole Richie to Be New Face of Halston?

Former reality star and accessories designer extraordinaire, Nicole Richie is in talks to become the new face of Halston.

Halston is a brand that rose to prominence in the 70’s but in recent years has had some regime change-ups that had some wondering what would happen to the label.

After Halston hired former Versace designer Marco Zanini as creative chief, he was fired in 2009 and many unnamed designers were brought on to design for the company. Then Marios Schwab took over as head designer, and actress Sarah Jessica Parker was appointed as the president of Halston Heritage, their secondary line.

Then a couple investors backed out this summer, so Schwab and Jessica Parker also left, leaving many to wonder if designer-level Halston is discontinued especially since the label didn’t show a collection for Spring 2012.

So, Nicole Richie could be the face to revamp the brand or maybe she’s working with their diffuse line Halston Heritage. Either way, Halston is all-about the casual floor length gown, so it makes perfect sense that Nicole Ritchie would be their new spokesperson as she made the 70’s style maxi-dress popular with regular women this year.

The brand is hoping she will turn-around their current misfortunes and a source says, “They wanted someone with Nicole’s fashion credentials.”

Those credentials include being honored with the Influencer Award at the Accessories Council Awards for her House of Harlow 1960 label and also her new clothing line Winter Kate.

Richie is also to appear as a mentor on the new reality series “Fashion Star.” Following in the footsteps of celebrities turned full-fledged designers like Victoria Beckham and Rachel Zoe, Richie has someone managed to shake her reality TV star image and is completely respected by the fashion world.

The source for Halston continues, “She is the perfect ambassador for Halston and even wore one of their gowns to the launch of her own fashion brand last week.”

While she may be their new face and spokes model, Richie would probably want to collaborate and design with them.

“She’d love to produce a capsule collection with them,” adds the source.

Other items on Richie’s fashion addendum include expanding the House of Harlow line into a more affordable range, hopefully not like K-Mart affordable, but something in between high fashion and what us regular women think is affordable.

Richie also has plans to write another book and record an album. Who knew right?

As for “Fashion Star” she will mentor opposite Jessica Simpson and John Varvatos, as contestants try to get their designs produced by major retailers each week. “Fashion Star” comes to NBC this February.