Aoril 11 - Oleg Cassini

Fashion designer Oleg Cassini was born on April 11, 1913, in Paris, to Russian aristocrats, the Count and Countess Loiewski. He grew up in Florence, studied under French couturier Jean Patou, and opened his own boutique in Rome. In 1936 he emigrated to America and, by 1941, he was a designer for Paramount Pictures, where he dressed many stars, including Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe. With a reputation for original, spontaneous design, he met Jacqueline Bouvier shortly before her marriage in 1953, and in 1961 he became the exclusive couturier to the woman who had become First Lady of the United States. (Mrs. Kennedy called him her "Secretary of Style.") Cassini shaped the entire “Jackie Look,” which had a profound and lasting impact on fashion for its sophisticated elegance, luxurious fabrics, clean lines and timeless simplicity. Pictured: the First Lady in Cassini designs, which he said focused on her “beauty, naturalness, understatement … and symbolism.”