Scaasi
Encyclopedia
Arnold Scaasi is an acclaimed fashion design
er who has created gowns for First Ladies Mamie Eisenhower
, Barbara Bush
, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush
, in addition to such notable personalities as Joan Crawford
, Ivana Trump
, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, Lauren Bacall
, Diahann Carroll, Elizabeth Taylor
, Catherine Deneuve
, Brooke Astor
, Arlene Francis
, Mary Tyler Moore
and The Baroness Wendy DeVere-Austin.
Scaasi was born Arnold Isaacs in Montreal
, Quebec
, Canada
, the son of a furrier. His decision to pursue a career in fashion was made at the age of fourteen during a trip to Australia
to visit his stylish aunt. He returned to Montreal to study at the Cotnoir-Capponi School of Design and completed his education at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne in Paris. He apprenticed at the House of Paquin
before moving to New York City
to work with designer Charles James
.
In the early 1950s, Scaasi's designs began appearing in a variety of print ads, including one for General Motors
photographed by Edgar de Evia
. During the shoot he met Robert Denning
, who suggested he reverse his last name to give himself an Italian
flair. Under his new name he achieved the December 1955 cover of Vogue
, which led to his starting a ready-to-wear
line the following year. He won the prestigious Coty Fashion Critics Award
in 1958.
Bucking the trend for affordable fashions, Scaasi opened a couture
salon catering to a clientele of socialite
s and celebrities in 1964. He was noted for his tailored suits and glamorous evening wear and cocktail dresses trimmed with feathers, fur, sequins, or fine embroidery. In 1968, he caught the eye of a worldwide audience when Barbra Streisand
wore his sheer overblouse and pants ensemble to collect her Academy Award for Funny Girl
. The media attention made him a household name overnight. He later designed Streisand's contemporary wear for the 1970 film On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
and costumes for Shirley Maclaine
and Susan Sarandon
in Loving Couples
(1980) and Sally Field
in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982).
Scaasi was presented with the Council of Fashion Designers of America Lifetime Achievement Award
in 1996. Over the years, major retrospectives of his work have been presented at various venues, including Kent State University
, Ohio State University
, the Fashion Institute of Technology
, and the New-York Historical Society
. The inaugural gown he designed for Barbara Bush is on display in the Smithsonian Institution
.
After being out of the limelight for several years, Scaasi appeared on Martha Stewart
's syndicated daytime series
in May 2007 to announce he was returning to the ready-to-wear market.
Scassi is the author of Scaasi: A Cut Above (ISBN 0847819876), published by Rizzoli
in 1996, and Women I Have Dressed (and Undressed!) (ISBN 0743246950), published by Scribner
in 2004. He and his partner
Parker Ladd have been together for more than fifty years.
Museum mounted a major retrospective about Arnold Scaasi that was curated by Anne Bissonnette to celebrate the museum's fifteenth anniversary. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
acquired in 2009 more than 100 couture designs by Arnold Scaasi and his paper and video archives, including sketchbooks from his collections from 1958 to the early 1990s, and all of his press clippings. A major exhibition of some of those clothes was shown in 2010 at the MFA in an exhibit called Scaasi: American Couturier, accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. The MFA's Scaasi collection includes the famous sequined pants outfit that was worn by Barbra Streisand
in 1969 when she won the Oscar for the movie Funny Girl
, along with stage costumes worn in her early concerts, a fur ensemble worn on her famous trip to Canada in 1970, and costumes worn in On a Clear Day. The collection also contains designs worn by Aretha Franklin
, Mary Tyler Moore
, Diahann Carroll, Arlene Francis
, Joan Sutherland
, Joan Rivers
, Louise Nevelson and numerous other socialites from New York and Palm Beach. Other museums with holdings of Arnold Scaasi designs in their collection are the Historical Society of Palm Beach County located in West Palm Beach, FL; and at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History
in Boynton Beach, FL, as well as FIT.
Fashion design
Fashion design is the art of the application of design and aesthetics or natural beauty to clothing and accessories. Fashion design is influenced by cultural and social latitudes, and has varied over time and place. Fashion designers work in a number of ways in designing clothing and accessories....
er who has created gowns for First Ladies Mamie Eisenhower
Mamie Eisenhower
Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower was the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and First Lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961.-Early life:...
, Barbara Bush
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush is the wife of the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of the 43rd President George W. Bush and of the 43rd Governor of Florida Jeb Bush...
, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush
Laura Bush
Laura Lane Welch Bush is the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. She was the First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009. She has held a love of books and reading since childhood and her life and education have reflected that interest...
, in addition to such notable personalities as Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
, Ivana Trump
Ivana Trump
Ivana Trump is a former Olympic athlete, socialite, and fashion model noted for her marriage to mogul Donald Trump.-Early years:...
, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
, Diahann Carroll, Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
, Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
, Brooke Astor
Brooke Astor
Roberta Brooke Astor was an American philanthropist and socialite who was the chairwoman of the Vincent Astor Foundation, which had been established by her third husband, Vincent Astor, son of John Jacob Astor IV and great-great grandson of America's first multi-millionaire, John Jacob...
, Arlene Francis
Arlene Francis
Arlene Francis was an American actress, radio talk show host, and game show panelist...
, Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...
and The Baroness Wendy DeVere-Austin.
Scaasi was born Arnold Isaacs in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the son of a furrier. His decision to pursue a career in fashion was made at the age of fourteen during a trip to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
to visit his stylish aunt. He returned to Montreal to study at the Cotnoir-Capponi School of Design and completed his education at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne in Paris. He apprenticed at the House of Paquin
Jeanne Paquin
Jeanne Paquin was a French fashion designer, known for her resolutely modern and innovative designs.Born in Saint-Denis in 1869, Paquin trained as a dressmaker at Rouff and later opened her own fashion house in 1891, the first woman to ever do so...
before moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to work with designer Charles James
Charles James (designer)
Charles James was a fashion designer known as America's first couturier. He is considered a master of cutting and is known for his highly structured aesthetic.-Early life:...
.
In the early 1950s, Scaasi's designs began appearing in a variety of print ads, including one for General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
photographed by Edgar de Evia
Edgar de Evia
Edgar Domingo Evia y Joutard, known professionally as Edgar de Evia , was a Mexican-born American photographer....
. During the shoot he met Robert Denning
Robert Denning
Robert Denning was an American interior designer whose lush interpretations of French Victorian decor became an emblem of corporate raider tastes in the 1980s.-Early life:...
, who suggested he reverse his last name to give himself an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
flair. Under his new name he achieved the December 1955 cover of Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, which led to his starting a ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear or prêt-à-porter is the term for factory-made clothing, sold in finished condition, in standardized sizes, as distinct from made to measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a particular person's frame. Off-the-peg is sometimes used for items which are not clothing.Ready-to-wear has...
line the following year. He won the prestigious Coty Fashion Critics Award
Coty Award
The Coty American Fashion Critics' Awards were first announced in January 1942 by the cosmetics and perfume company Coty, Inc. to promote and celebrate American fashion, and encourage design during the Second World War. The first awards were presented in January 1943, with Norman Norell winning...
in 1958.
Bucking the trend for affordable fashions, Scaasi opened a couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
salon catering to a clientele of socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
s and celebrities in 1964. He was noted for his tailored suits and glamorous evening wear and cocktail dresses trimmed with feathers, fur, sequins, or fine embroidery. In 1968, he caught the eye of a worldwide audience when Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
wore his sheer overblouse and pants ensemble to collect her Academy Award for Funny Girl
Funny Girl (film)
Funny Girl is a 1968 romantic musical film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Isobel Lennart was adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same title...
. The media attention made him a household name overnight. He later designed Streisand's contemporary wear for the 1970 film On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever is a musical with music by Burton Lane and a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner based loosely on Berkeley Square, written in 1929 by John L. Balderston. It concerns a woman who has ESP and has been reincarnated...
and costumes for Shirley Maclaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
and Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
in Loving Couples
Loving Couples (1980 film)
Loving Couples is a 1980 American romantic comedy film written by Martin Donovan and directed by Jack Smight.The plot offers a comic spin on adultery. When Greg crashes his sports car, doctor Evelyn comes to his rescue, and the two soon are engaged in an affair...
(1980) and Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...
in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982).
Scaasi was presented with the Council of Fashion Designers of America Lifetime Achievement Award
Council of Fashion Designers of America
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. is a not-for-profit trade association of over 350 of America’s foremost fashion and accessory designers. As of 2009, Diane von Fürstenberg is the group's President and Steven Kolb is the Executive Director...
in 1996. Over the years, major retrospectives of his work have been presented at various venues, including Kent State University
Kent State University
Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...
, Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
, the Fashion Institute of Technology
Fashion Institute of Technology
The Fashion Institute of Technology, generally known as FIT, is a State University of New York college of art, business, design, and technology connected to the fashion industry, with an urban campus located on West 27th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of...
, and the New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library located in New York City at the corner of 77th Street and Central Park West in Manhattan. Founded in 1804 as New York's first museum, the New-York Historical Society presents exhibitions, public programs and research that...
. The inaugural gown he designed for Barbara Bush is on display in the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
.
After being out of the limelight for several years, Scaasi appeared on Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
's syndicated daytime series
Martha (TV series)
Martha, also known as The Martha Stewart Show, is an American, weekday one-hour talk show hosted by Martha Stewart. Previously airing in first-run syndication, the show began exclusively airing on cable network Hallmark Channel since September 13, 2010.-History:The program originally debuted on...
in May 2007 to announce he was returning to the ready-to-wear market.
Scassi is the author of Scaasi: A Cut Above (ISBN 0847819876), published by Rizzoli
RCS MediaGroup
RCS MediaGroup S.p.A. , based in Milan and listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, is an international multimedia publishing group that operates in daily newspapers, magazines and books, radio broadcasting, new media and digital and satellite TV...
in 1996, and Women I Have Dressed (and Undressed!) (ISBN 0743246950), published by Scribner
Charles Scribner's Sons
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon...
in 2004. He and his partner
Significant other
Significant other is colloquially used as a gender-blind term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, or sexual orientation, as it is vague enough to avoid offense by using a term that an individual...
Parker Ladd have been together for more than fifty years.
Museum retrospectives about Arnold Scaasi
In 2001, The Kent State UniversityKent State University
Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...
Museum mounted a major retrospective about Arnold Scaasi that was curated by Anne Bissonnette to celebrate the museum's fifteenth anniversary. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
acquired in 2009 more than 100 couture designs by Arnold Scaasi and his paper and video archives, including sketchbooks from his collections from 1958 to the early 1990s, and all of his press clippings. A major exhibition of some of those clothes was shown in 2010 at the MFA in an exhibit called Scaasi: American Couturier, accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. The MFA's Scaasi collection includes the famous sequined pants outfit that was worn by Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
in 1969 when she won the Oscar for the movie Funny Girl
Funny Girl
Funny Girl is a musical with a book by Isobel Lennart, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of Broadway, film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein...
, along with stage costumes worn in her early concerts, a fur ensemble worn on her famous trip to Canada in 1970, and costumes worn in On a Clear Day. The collection also contains designs worn by Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...
, Diahann Carroll, Arlene Francis
Arlene Francis
Arlene Francis was an American actress, radio talk show host, and game show panelist...
, Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
, Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...
, Louise Nevelson and numerous other socialites from New York and Palm Beach. Other museums with holdings of Arnold Scaasi designs in their collection are the Historical Society of Palm Beach County located in West Palm Beach, FL; and at the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History
Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History
The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History is a non-profit organization located in Palm Beach County, Florida. It hosts the Barbie Museum exhibit.-Overview:...
in Boynton Beach, FL, as well as FIT.
Selected Bibliography
- A. Parmal, Pamela,"ARNOLD SCAASI: AMERICAN COUTURIER",MFA Publications,2010. ISBN 9780878467587
External links
- 1996 video interview with Charlie Rose
- Arnold Scaasi profile at Kent State University Museum
- Council of Fashion Designers of America profile
- Arnold Scaasi at Frillr.com
- 1960s Dress by Arnold Scaasi, in the Staten Island Historical Society Online Collections Database
- www.mfa.org Museum of Fine Arts, Boston