Fashion Reverie looks back at the career of fashion icon Oleg Cassini. Credited for creating the “Jackie Look,” Oleg Cassini was the personal couturier of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
Born to an aristocratic family, his mother was an Italian countess and his father was an impoverished Russian diplomat, his grandfather was the Imperial Russian ambassador to Peking, Oleg Cassini immigrated to the US in the 1920s.
One of his first jobs was designing clothes for Paramount Pictures. He designed wardrobe for Veronica Lake, Natalie Wood, Marilyn Monroe, and Gene Tierney. And in 1948, Cassini moved to New York City and opened his own fashion house.
Cassini’s aesthetic as Vogue’s Hamish Bowles would describe it had “an incredibly hourglass, body revealing, high-impact” look. And as Cassini would describe his own design point of view “my philosophy is this: Do not tamper with the anatomy of a woman’s body; do not camouflage it.”
A long-time family friend of the Kennedys, Oleg Cassini became the official fashion designer of the White House in 1960. Cassini created the “Jackie Look” which consisted of A-Line dresses and bracelet-sleeved jackets. Cassini’s looks for Jacqueline Kennedy became known as the quintessential American classic clothes, paving the way for such designers as Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, and Halston.
Images courtesy of olegcassini.com
Cassini was also one of the first designers to land lucrative licensing deals. “Weitz, Cardin, Blass, and Cassini: We are the true fathers of the fashion movement,” he later said, “and designers are now millionaires because of us. You might say that I’m the Michelangelo of the dress business.”
Cassini also revitalized men’s fashion in the US by becoming the first designer to create dress shirts in a variety of bold colors, stepping away from the traditional white shirt with suits. He also dressed Johnny Carson, Michael Jordan, Burt Reynolds and Regis Philbin.
In 2003, Oleg Cassini received the Board of Directors SpecialTribute from the CFDA. Oleg Cassini died from complications of a brain aneurysm in 2006.
—William S. Gooch
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