32 InSTYLE AUGUST 2019
FASHION STATEMENT
AS THE ESTATE OF OLEG CASSINI GOES
ON THE AUCTION BLOCK, SO GOES A LEGACY
OF DRESSING FOR IMPACT IN POLITICS
BY ERIC WILSON
The Last
of C a melot
A
mong the handful of
knickknacks that
decorate my less-
than-tidy workspace,
piled on a bookshelf
between impressive-
looking designer monographs I’ve never
actually read, sits a random assortment
of crystal ornaments that I absolutely
adore. Tacky they may be, but each piece
holds sentimental value. My favorite is a
fat paperweight in the shape of a pencil,
which was a Christmas gift from designer Oleg Cassini
sometime in the late ’90s or early aughts.
It’s worthless, I’m sure. But to a writer who specializes
in fashion, it means everything. A lot of memories are
reflected in its facets, foremost the semiannual lunch dates
Cassini and I enjoyed at an unassuming Italian restaurant
on the Upper East Side, near the Elias Asiel Mansion that
was his residence for many years. Cassini was a trip, one
last relic of a bygone time. Compact and fit, sporting a debo-
nair mustache, dark-lensed glasses, a low-cut ’50s-style
jacket, and cowboy boots, Cassini, the son of an impover-
ished Russian-Italian count, was the embodiment of an
Old Holly wood–era dress designer.
Normally we would discuss changes in his business—he
had been the longest-working designer in America when
he died in 2006, at the age of 92. He liked to talk about poli-
tics and the ladies he dressed, but inevitably the conversa-
tion would turn to the bugbear that haunted him for years:
accusations that the designs he created for his most famous
client, Jacqueline Kennedy, were actually ordered as line-
for-line copies of French couture. Hubert de Givenchy cer-
tainly thought so, and Karl Lagerfeld claimed that Chanel
had the receipts. Cassini denied this strenuously, and his
well-documented correspondence with Kennedy showed
the depths of an extraordinary collaboration between a
designer and a first lady.
A year before Cassini died, I accompanied him to the
now-shuttered Lord & Taylor store on Fifth Avenue, where he
received an award in front of a crowd of more than 700 people.
I’ll never forget how, while I tried to interview him, he kept
pestering the young models wearing his designs to go out with
him. “For the first time I realize that I am no longer just a
designer,” the notorious jet-set playboy said. “I’m a guru.”
In fact, Cassini was a great innovator, the first designer
to recognize that the potency of ornamental fashion, such as
that worn by royalty for centuries to illustrate their wealth
and position, could also be applied to American politics.
Today it is well understood that world leaders and their
spouses use their appearances as tools of communication,
none so literally as Melania “I really don’t care, do u?”
Trump. Cassini had started his career in Holly wood, where
he met and married actress Gene Tierney and later pursued
Grace Kelly, Anita Ekberg, and Marilyn Monroe. When he
was tapped as Kennedy’s dressmaker in 1960, he approached
the role much as would a costume designer creating a ward-
robe for a character, sketching dresses with strong lines
inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphics and antiquities, along
with a pillbox hat based on the bust of Queen Nefertiti. Coats
were designed in the manner of a Cossack uniform, with
large buttons that became a Kennedy signature.
In the age of television the bold shapes and colors made
the first lady stand out onscreen. Cassini designed a red
[Kennedy]
was the perfect
model for very
simple lines–a
minimalist par
excellence.”
—OLEG CASSINI
The colors of her wardrobe
for India were inspired by
Mughal miniatures.
Cassini
and Kelly
during
their
courtship
