Designer Oleg Cassini; Styled Jacqueline Kennedy
Associated Press
Saturday, March 18, 2006; Page B06
Oleg Cassini, the designer who created the dresses that helped win Jacqueline Kennedy recognition as the most glamorous first lady in history, died March 17 in New York. He was 92.
Mr. Cassini died on Long Island, his company said. The cause of death was not reported.
Jacqueline Kennedy, who was 31 when her husband was elected president of the United States, was the acme of elegance in the White House, with her simple, geometric dresses in sumptuous fabrics, her pillbox hats and her coiffure.
Mr. Cassini said that shortly after John F. Kennedy was elected, he persuaded Jacqueline Kennedy to use him for her total look, rather than as one of many designers. He had long been a family friend. "We are on the threshold of a new American elegance, thanks to Mrs. Kennedy's beauty, naturalness, understatement, exposure and symbolism," he said.
He was born in Paris and raised in Italy. In 1936, he came to the United States, where he designed clothes for Hollywood. He was an Army lieutenant during World War II and then designed for television and Broadway.
He had been married to actress Gene Tierney, and they had two daughters.
