Scaasi
1930 - 2015
“Clothes should be fun with a dash of fantasy. Scaasi creations are the champagne and caviar of the fashion world. As a very prominent Queen once said, ‘Let them eat cake!’ I do hope I won’t have my head chopped off for these thoughts!” – Arnold Scaasi
Arnold Scaasi is best known for his colorful, luxurious evening dresses – and for the women he has “dressed (and undressed)” – including several First Ladies and a host of celebrities and socialites. Born Arnold Isaacs in 1930, the son of a Canadian furrier, he studied design in Montreal and then in France at the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne. After an apprenticeship at the house of Paquin, he moved to New York in 1951, where he worked as an assistant to the great American couturier Charles James. Early in the 1950s, he also reversed the letters in his surname – from Isaacs to Scaasi – perhaps to sound stylishly Italian. Scaasi started his own company in 1956; in 1958 he received the Coty Fashion Critics Award.
Scassi’s early work was highly sculptural, a design hallmark he would maintain throughout his career. He used only the most luxurious, couture-quality textiles, and became known for his boldly patterned evening dresses with coats lined in matching fabric. It has been said that he was the first designer to incorporate shorter lengths for formal evening dresses, with hemlines higher than the knee. Although Scaasi initially began designing ready-to-wear, his focus from the mid-1960s on increasingly shifted to couture dressmaking, as he realized the opportunities provided by the crisis in the Paris haute couture. Scaasi died in 2015 at the age of 85.
Arnold Scaasi is best known for his colorful, luxurious evening dresses – and for the women he has “dressed (and undressed)” – including several First Ladies and a host of celebrities and socialites. Born Arnold Isaacs in 1930, the son of a Canadian furrier, he studied design in Montreal and then in France at the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne. After an apprenticeship at the house of Paquin, he moved to New York in 1951, where he worked as an assistant to the great American couturier Charles James. Early in the 1950s, he also reversed the letters in his surname – from Isaacs to Scaasi – perhaps to sound stylishly Italian. Scaasi started his own company in 1956; in 1958 he received the Coty Fashion Critics Award.
Scassi’s early work was highly sculptural, a design hallmark he would maintain throughout his career. He used only the most luxurious, couture-quality textiles, and became known for his boldly patterned evening dresses with coats lined in matching fabric. It has been said that he was the first designer to incorporate shorter lengths for formal evening dresses, with hemlines higher than the knee. Although Scaasi initially began designing ready-to-wear, his focus from the mid-1960s on increasingly shifted to couture dressmaking, as he realized the opportunities provided by the crisis in the Paris haute couture. Scaasi died in 2015 at the age of 85.