Designer Interview ...
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A Rich Background
Cassini got into fashion design when he was a student at the University of Rome. “I wanted to be a painter. After about a year and a half I had an interview with Giorgio de Chirico, a great painter, and he said, ‘You have talent, but to be a painter you have to dedicate yourself to it totally, and you want to do too many things. So why don’t you select a career where you need talent, but you also can control your lifestyle?’ And I chose to become a designer.”
Cassini opened a studio in Rome and began designing for the girls of high society, who were his friends. “I was taking them out, and from that beginning in 1933 to the present day, I have had the great luck of designing for some exceptional women. And I have learned that a good designer can become a very important part of a woman’s life.
“Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly, and Gene Tierney were extraordinary woman who all made a mark in their lives. I was very fortunate to have the good luck of doing work for them.
“But a good designer who is given that opportunity, like I had with Jackie, has to trust in just the designing for years.
“The same thing happens in selecting a wedding gown. If a bride came to me and said, ‘Can you make me look fabulous?’ I think I could make her look terrific by helping with the gown selection, or offer other suggestions about how to comb her hair, and how to tie everything together to present a final picture that will be appealing to her.”
First Lady Jackie Kennedy, for example, truly was the center of attention in many different countries she visited. President Kennedy once said, “I am the man who accompanied Jackie Kennedy to Europe,” and to accommodate the world’s curiosity in her style, Cassini created fashions which reverberate to this day.
An Enduring Inspiration: Subtle Sexuality, Simplicity, & Audacity
“It’s forty years later and there is still a lot of Jackie in every wedding gown. It is admitted that she was one of the best dressed women of the period, and she will remain an icon for anyone who knows anything about fashion. I was extremely lucky she selected me. It was the telephone call of all times for a designer. She had everything, youth, power, beauty, money, and whatever else a person could have. She was endowed with it. And she allowed me to express myself and do the best work I knew how to do for her.”
Almost every one of her gowns made a tremendous statement. “Modesty aside, ‘The Jackie Look’ is history,” says Cassini. “Many of the wedding gowns I design now have their basic inspiration in Jackie. The gowns have a subtle sex appeal, a simplicity, and an audacity if you wish, in the selection of fabrics and various styling elements.”
Grace Kelly, on the other hand, is considered by many to be the reigning princess of film. “But when I first met her, although she was a good actress, she ‘camouflaged’ herself. She wore glasses and combed her hair in a way that did not respond to her glamour. And so she looked like a school teacher.
“After much persuasion I convinced her that she was so pretty that she had to glamorize her style and her lifestyle and wear beautiful things. If you can remember, there was a picture ‘To Catch a Thief’ which suddenly caught up with everybody, and they discovered Grace Kelly.
“But you see the problem in our society is that only the personalities who had big coverage are remembered. I worked for a tremendous number of stars and starlets, some did well, and some became truly famous, like Marilyn Monroe.
“I worked with Marilyn as a starlet and later on she became a star. So I had a lot of importance for her. Being a starlet at 20th Century Fox she needed direction and guidance, and I was one of those who were there for her.”
Any final advice for a bride looking for her dress and getting prepared for her wedding?
“I would say, ‘You will have to be patient.’ Look and select carefully among the many choices. You have to know your own figure, and what is more becoming on you. And consider designers like me, who have a vast collection. I go from a price of $500 to $1500 in one collection. Then from $5000 to $50,000 in another. If you can’t find your gown in that range, then I did the best I could!
“Now we are ready to embrace the other countries because the line has been so successful in a very short time — we are going worldwide with our gowns.”
Oleg Cassini, exclusively at David’s Bridal
888.639.6767, olegcassini@rcn.com
www.olegcassini.com
www.davidsbridal.com
