Scaasi
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Scaasi is an American fashion designer who has created gowns for First Lady Laura Bush, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower.
He was born Arnold Isaacs in Montreal, the son of a furrier. His decision for a career in fashion was largely determined by a trip to Australia at the age of fourteen to visit his Aunt Ida.
His studies began at the Cotnoir-Capponi School of Design, which with its affiliation with the Paris Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne led him to complete his formal training there. He was an apprentice at the House of Paquin, following which he secured a position with designer Charles James in New York City and he returned to America. After working there for just over two years what he learned from James' demanding clientele helped him to develop his own skills as a creator. From the beginning he always sought to achieve maximum impact from the use of color. Freelancing his clothes started to appear in magazine ads in the early 1950s. During this early period his creations were used for a Body by Fisher ad campaign for General Motors photographed by Edgar de Evia. Here he met Robert Denning who suggested he needed a name to match his talent. Denning, no stranger to name changes, reversed the letters in Isaacs last name, arriving at Scaasi giving a fashionable Italian flavor and the designer's future was cast.[1]
With his magnetic new name he achieved a cover of Vogue magazine in December 1955. This Christmas issue with his dramatic red coat would lead the way to his opening a ready-to-wear line in 1956 with only a seamstress, a tailor, a small Manhattan loft and $2,000. Hard work, vision, and diplomacy had the leading ladies seeking him out by the late 1950's.:
- Scaasi, for those who don't know their powders from their poufs, is Arnold Scaasi, the get-up-and-go set's dressmaker of the moment. Mr. Scaasi was around, too. Counting dresses, as usual.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Anne Bissonnette, Curator for The Kent State University Museum Scaasi An American Icon retrieved June 29, 2006
- ^ The Evening Hours by Michael Gross, May 15, 1987, New York Times online retrieved June 29, 2006
