First Lady as Muse

My previous post about Oleg Cassini got me thinking about his relationship with the gorgeous Jackie Kennedy during her years as First Lady. I love Jackie because she was refined and intelligent, beautiful, uniquely stylish, bookish (she was a book editor in later years), discreet and the mother of one of the hottest men of the 20th Century.

Oleg Cassini designed many, many of the outfits Jackie wore on various State Visits and to many White House functions. It is such a pity that news reporting back then was still largely a black and white world as Jackie really embraced colour. I love all the long white gloves.

The Met in NY had an exhibition of Jacqueline's early 1960's clothing some time ago and I managed to find these images of some of their collection pieces. You'll recognise the blue strapless dress which she wore to a Ball in Mexico and the lovely pink dress she wore on a trip to India.

Lover as Muse

In history there have occasionally been top male fashion designers who have actually been straight and one of those was French-American designer Oleg Cassini. Cassini was, for a time, married to Oscar winning Hollywood actress Gene Tierney and he also dated Grace Kelly. He is probably best known as the designer of choice for my beloved Jackie Kennedy Onassis, when she was First Lady.

As I've been off the air in recent days due to absence from Sydney and illness, this is just a quick post of some photos of Gene in Oleg Cassini. Normally blogging will resume shortly.

The Frock has a great selection of vintage Oleg Cassini gowns to drool over at the moment. Anyone got a spare $5,000 they want to lend me indefinitely?