Page 27 - Journal of Antiques and Collectibles Januray 2020
P. 27
Cassini sailed into New York Harbor on Christmas
Day 1936. His autobiography describes his possessions
upon arrival in America as being limited to a tuxedo, two
tennis rackets, a title, and talent. After working briefly
and struggling as a political cartoonist in Washington,
D.C., Cassini headed for Hollywood to live a life straight
out of a Hollywood movie.
THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS
Armed with a pedigree, rackets, and his skills as a tennis
player, Cassini gained entrée into the West Side Tennis
Club shortly after arriving in Hollywood. His doubles
partner in a tournament they had won introduced
himself as the head of Paramount Pictures and offered
Cassini a job as a costume designer at the Studio for
$250 per week. His first film, I Wanted Wings (Paramount
Pictures, 1941), not only launched his career but that of
the film’s star, newcomer Veronica Lake.
Cassini went on to dress most of the Studio’s
fashionable leading ladies of the day including Rita
Hayworth, Audrey Hepburn, Janet Leigh, Betty Grable, Oleg Cassini and Natalie Wood
Jayne Mansfield, Lana Turner, and Gene Tierney. He at the El Morocco club in
was also known to date many of them, including Gene New York, 1956
Tierney, whom he married in 1941 and divorced in Marilyn Monroe wearing this red velvet gown
1947. He was madly in love with Grace Kelly, with whom he became engaged to before by Oleg Cassini in 1951 as she accepted her
she left him for Prince Rainier. From there, he dated Marilyn Monroe, Anita Ekberg, “Best Young Box Office Personality” award
and Ursula Andress, amongst others.
Oleg was joined in his Hollywood reign as a “man about town” by his brother, Igor,
a sharp-tongued Hollywood gossip columnist that wrote under the byline, Cholly
Knickerbocker. The two brothers were often seen and photographed at all the
fashionable parties and watering holes in the best of Hollywood company—especially
its starlets—forever cementing their reputation as playboys.
In spite of a heady social life in Hollywood and reputation for designing Jacqueline Kennedy wore this dress by
and dating Hollywood’s leading ladies, Cassini returned to New York in Oleg Cassini to the pre-inaugural ball
1950 to launch his own design label and fashion house. He was determined on January 19, 1961. In the contact
to advance his reputation as a serious American fashion designer rather than sheets, one can see the holes in the
just a Hollywood costume designer. paper created by the heels of her shoes.
The holes were eliminated by retouch-
ing a print the copy negative used to
make this photograph. photo: Richard Avedon
THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS
It wasn’t until 1959 when the newly elected President John F. Kennedy
asked him to be the official designer for his wife that Cassini’s dream took off. Jack had
persuaded his wife that she should use Oleg, who the family had been friendly with for
years, as the creator of her total look, rather than one
of many designers. Kennedy’s father, Joseph, picked
up the tab for the nearly 300 outfits designed by Oleg
for the First Lady in her 1,000 days of office.
As the First Lady’s designer, Cassini foreshadowed
a time when designers would be defined by their
celebrity clients, yet the “Jackie Look” was very much
a collaborated effort between the two.
In a nine-page letter to Cassini in December 1960,
Kennedy was specific about the magnitude of the com-
mitment she was looking for from him. She asked,
“ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE UP TO IT OLEG?”
Suggesting he put his brilliant mind to work,
imagining what she would wear if her husband was the
president of France — très Princess de Rethy — mais
jeune …” She also indicated how familiar she was with
the hazards of “PUBLICITY.” “One reason I am so
happy to be working with you is that I have some
control over my fashion press, which has gotten so
Mrs. Kennedy packed a sleeveless vulgarly out-of-hand. You realize that I know that I
apricot-colored Oleg Cassini dress am so much more of fashion interest than other First
that she had worn on a trip to Ladies,” before adding that she refused to have her
Udaipur, India, for Texas. husband’s administration plagued by fashion stories of
photo: John F. Kennedy Library Foundation a sensational nature – “to be the Marie Antoinette or
Josephine of the 1960s.”
Through the First Lady, Cassini’s fashions were thrust into the international fashion
arena on one of the most admired and photographed women of her time. Whatever she
wore—whether a strapless dress to an art opening at the National Gallery or a First Lady Jackie with President Kennedy at his inauguration
pink-and-white straw-lace dress with a matching cape for a reception at Versailles— with the pillbox hat that set the fashion world on fire
January 2020 25
Day 1936. His autobiography describes his possessions
upon arrival in America as being limited to a tuxedo, two
tennis rackets, a title, and talent. After working briefly
and struggling as a political cartoonist in Washington,
D.C., Cassini headed for Hollywood to live a life straight
out of a Hollywood movie.
THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS
Armed with a pedigree, rackets, and his skills as a tennis
player, Cassini gained entrée into the West Side Tennis
Club shortly after arriving in Hollywood. His doubles
partner in a tournament they had won introduced
himself as the head of Paramount Pictures and offered
Cassini a job as a costume designer at the Studio for
$250 per week. His first film, I Wanted Wings (Paramount
Pictures, 1941), not only launched his career but that of
the film’s star, newcomer Veronica Lake.
Cassini went on to dress most of the Studio’s
fashionable leading ladies of the day including Rita
Hayworth, Audrey Hepburn, Janet Leigh, Betty Grable, Oleg Cassini and Natalie Wood
Jayne Mansfield, Lana Turner, and Gene Tierney. He at the El Morocco club in
was also known to date many of them, including Gene New York, 1956
Tierney, whom he married in 1941 and divorced in Marilyn Monroe wearing this red velvet gown
1947. He was madly in love with Grace Kelly, with whom he became engaged to before by Oleg Cassini in 1951 as she accepted her
she left him for Prince Rainier. From there, he dated Marilyn Monroe, Anita Ekberg, “Best Young Box Office Personality” award
and Ursula Andress, amongst others.
Oleg was joined in his Hollywood reign as a “man about town” by his brother, Igor,
a sharp-tongued Hollywood gossip columnist that wrote under the byline, Cholly
Knickerbocker. The two brothers were often seen and photographed at all the
fashionable parties and watering holes in the best of Hollywood company—especially
its starlets—forever cementing their reputation as playboys.
In spite of a heady social life in Hollywood and reputation for designing Jacqueline Kennedy wore this dress by
and dating Hollywood’s leading ladies, Cassini returned to New York in Oleg Cassini to the pre-inaugural ball
1950 to launch his own design label and fashion house. He was determined on January 19, 1961. In the contact
to advance his reputation as a serious American fashion designer rather than sheets, one can see the holes in the
just a Hollywood costume designer. paper created by the heels of her shoes.
The holes were eliminated by retouch-
ing a print the copy negative used to
make this photograph. photo: Richard Avedon
THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS
It wasn’t until 1959 when the newly elected President John F. Kennedy
asked him to be the official designer for his wife that Cassini’s dream took off. Jack had
persuaded his wife that she should use Oleg, who the family had been friendly with for
years, as the creator of her total look, rather than one
of many designers. Kennedy’s father, Joseph, picked
up the tab for the nearly 300 outfits designed by Oleg
for the First Lady in her 1,000 days of office.
As the First Lady’s designer, Cassini foreshadowed
a time when designers would be defined by their
celebrity clients, yet the “Jackie Look” was very much
a collaborated effort between the two.
In a nine-page letter to Cassini in December 1960,
Kennedy was specific about the magnitude of the com-
mitment she was looking for from him. She asked,
“ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE UP TO IT OLEG?”
Suggesting he put his brilliant mind to work,
imagining what she would wear if her husband was the
president of France — très Princess de Rethy — mais
jeune …” She also indicated how familiar she was with
the hazards of “PUBLICITY.” “One reason I am so
happy to be working with you is that I have some
control over my fashion press, which has gotten so
Mrs. Kennedy packed a sleeveless vulgarly out-of-hand. You realize that I know that I
apricot-colored Oleg Cassini dress am so much more of fashion interest than other First
that she had worn on a trip to Ladies,” before adding that she refused to have her
Udaipur, India, for Texas. husband’s administration plagued by fashion stories of
photo: John F. Kennedy Library Foundation a sensational nature – “to be the Marie Antoinette or
Josephine of the 1960s.”
Through the First Lady, Cassini’s fashions were thrust into the international fashion
arena on one of the most admired and photographed women of her time. Whatever she
wore—whether a strapless dress to an art opening at the National Gallery or a First Lady Jackie with President Kennedy at his inauguration
pink-and-white straw-lace dress with a matching cape for a reception at Versailles— with the pillbox hat that set the fashion world on fire
January 2020 25
