Cassini, Oleg, 1913–2006, American fashion designer, b. Paris as Oleg Cassini Loiewski. Raised in Italy, he came to the United States in 1936, and in the 1940s designed costumes for Twentieth-Century Fox and other Hollywood studios. After returning to New York, he created elegant ready-to-wear dresses, while continuing to design for television and Broadway musicals. In the 1960s he became the official designer to Jacqueline Kennedy, the wife of President Kennedy, creating the “Camelot” look that became synonymous with well-crafted style. He was known for such looks as the sheath, the A-line dress, and the pill-box hat and, for men, the turtleneck, brightly colored shirts, and the Nehru jacket. A pioneer in franchising, he lent his name to some 50 fashion-related lines.
See his autobiography, In My Own Fashion (1987).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Fashion: Biographies
