Oleg Cassini (11 April 1913 – 17 March 2006)[1] was a fashion designer born to an aristocratic Russian family with maternal Italian ancestry.

In 1918, the Russian Revolution caused the Loiewski family to flee for their lives, leaving behind their wealth, lands, and homes.

He spent almost a year in bed in recovery, during which time he studied history and read extensively, including authors such as American James Fenimore Cooper.

He studied fine art under painter Giorgio de Chirico at the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze.

[6] Oleg became engaged to a debutante in Rome, Anna Donnina Toeplitz, and subsequently left for the United States after winning a duel.

Cassini designed costumes for films including The Shanghai Gesture (1941), starring Gene Tierney, Tales of Manhattan (1942) for Rita Hayworth, The Razor's Edge (1946), It's a Joke Son!

(1947), Born to Speed (1947), Lost Honeymoon (1947), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), That Wonderful Urge (1948), Whirlpool (1949), Night and the City (1950), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), as well as The Mating Season, Close to My Heart, On the Riviera (all 1951), Rampage (1963), The Tammy Grimes Show (1966), The Day Dreamer (1966), Peligro ... !

Mujeres en acción, (1967), The Ambushers (1967) for Dean Martin, SOS Conspiracion Bikini (1967), The Sentinel (2006) for Kim Basinger, and Say It in Russian (2007) for Faye Dunaway.

He worked for the major film studios and dressed numerous stars over the course of his career including Audrey Hepburn, Shirley Temple, Anita Ekberg, Janet Leigh, Loretta Young, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Ursula Andress, Jayne Mansfield, Lana Turner, Sandra Dee, Suzy Parker, Gina Lollobrigida, Renée Zellweger, Malin Åkerman, Kim Basinger, Carroll Baker and Taylor Swift.

Cassini became a United States citizen (in December 1941/January 1942, losing his titles of nobility); he was commissioned as a first Lieutenant at Fort Riley, Kansas.

[6] Cassini also took his designs "on the road" to his customers in trunk shows and special fashion events in order to promote the new lines.

The in store events evolved into the emerging medium of television and Cassini displayed his product on Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Dinah Shore, Phil Donahue, and Good Morning America.

[7] His reputation developed as a result of his genius for original spontaneous design and in 1953, shortly before her marriage to John Kennedy, Cassini met Jacqueline Bouvier, named by his brother, society columnist Cholly Knickerbocker as "Queen Deb of the Year" in 1947.

You should be proud of your achievement, you are the designer who inaugurated her style.I dressed Jackie to be a star in a major film, which she was, the most famous first lady of all time.

Cassini's appointment by Jacqueline Kennedy as her exclusive couturier in 1961 dubbed him her "Secretary of Style" and provided him a position of prestige.

[8] "We are on the threshold of a new American elegance thanks to Mrs. Kennedy's beauty, naturalness, understatement, exposure and symbolism," Cassini said when his selection as the couturier to shape the entire look of the First Lady was announced.

Cassini brought American design to the world stage as the First Lady's identity became synonymous with sophistication and taste.

The publicity Cassini derived from his work for Mrs. Kennedy led women from 18 to 80 to copy the look of simple, geometric dresses in sumptuous fabrics and pillbox hats with an elegant coiffure.

Cassini designed a reported 300 outfits for the First Lady, including a much-copied coat made of leopard pelts and a Swiss double satin white gown decorated by a single cocarde which she wore to the Inaugural Gala Ball in 1961.

[10] He was the recipient of a Doctorate of Fine Arts, in 1989,[11] His name adorned everything from luggage to nail polish, as well as special luxurious coupé versions of the 1974 and 1975 AMC Matador automobile.

[14] The special Oleg Cassini Matador was positioned in the popular and highly competitive "personal luxury car" market segment.

[15] The "distinctive" styling of the Cassini "designer editions" merit collector interest[16] In 1960, with his younger brother, society columnist Igor, Oleg opened Le Club in Manhattan, which becomes a leading private club with such members as Gianni Agnelli, Stavros Niarchos, Aristotle Onassis, and Ray Stark.

It featured icons of sport wearing Cassini including: Ted Turner for sailing, Bob Hope and Raymond Floyd for golf, Michael Jordan for basketball, Mario Andretti for racing, Gary Carter for baseball, Lynn Swann and Lawrence Taylor for football and Charlton Heston, Regis Philbin, and Kenny Rogers for tennis.

[23] Oleg Cassini excelled at tennis and competed seriously since his early days as a ranked Italian Junior Davis Cup player.

[25] Oleg Cassini received the James Herriot Award (All Creatures Great and Small) as the Man of the Year from the Humane Society of the United States for his work and care for animals.

[22] Cassini was named an honorary member of the Chickasaw and Navajo nations in 1981 due to his fund raising and organization of gala charity events for the tribes.

[2] He appeared on hundreds of television shows worldwide in many languages, and also hosted a special 13-part TV series, Conversations with Cassini, on the Arts & Entertainment Network.

The couple separated on 20 October 1946, and entered into a property settlement agreement on 10 November 1946 in which Cassini's fifty percent share of the marital estate was dedicated to the ongoing care of Daria.