Oleg Cassini

He was born in Paris as Oleg Aleksandrovich Loiewski, the elder son of Countess Marguerite Cassini and her husband Count Alexander Loiewski, a Russian diplomat, thereby obtaining the title of Count. His maternal grandfather Arthur Paul Nicholas Cassini, Marquis de Capuzzuchi di Bologna, Count Cassini, had been the Russian ambassador to the United States during the administrations of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Count Arthur Cassini signed the treaty ending the war between Japan and China. His mother's family claimed Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini as an ancestor. In 1918, the Russian Revolution caused the Loiewski family to flee for their lives, leaving behind their wealth, lands, and homes. As a young child, Oleg saw his cousin shot to death. The family arrived in Denmark and then relocated to Switzerland. The Greek Royal family invited them to Greece, but while traveling through Italy, a revolution also began in Greece. They got off the train in Florence, eventually settling there. In Italy, the children started using the surname of Cassini.

In his early youth, Cassini suffered a significant accident, almost losing his leg. He spent nearly a year in bed recovering, during which time he studied history and read extensively, including works by American James Fenimore Cooper. He developed a love of history and the mysticism of Native American tribes. He also discovered American culture through the movies from the United States that were shown in Italy.

When he started school, Oleg had to learn Italian, but he already knew Russian, French, and Danish. His mother, Marguerite Cassini, founded her fashion house in Florence, gaining American clients through acquaintances she had made in Washington, D.C., as the daughter of Count Arthur Cassini.

Cassini played soccer with the teenage team, the "Boys" of Fiorentina, and was a member of the university track and ski teams. He also played tennis for the Italian Jr. Davis Cup team, becoming Italian Jr. Champion.

Hollywood

Upon arriving in California, Cassini began playing tennis at the West Side Tennis Club. After he competed in and won a doubles tournament, his partner introduced himself as the head of Paramount Pictures, saying he was "looking for another designer". Cassini went to the studio the next day and got the job as a full designer for Paramount Pictures. In 1941, his first film was I Wanted Wings, for which he created the look for its star, newcomer Veronica Lake.

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.

His designs are worn in the climactic scene of Meet Joe Black (1998) and throughout Ready or Not (2009). 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.

On September 2, 1938, in Elkton, Maryland, Cassini became the husband of Mary "Merry" Fahrney (1910–1974). The couple divorced in 1940.

Cassini married actress Gene Tierney on June 2, 1941. Their daughter, Antoinette Daria, was born on 15 October 1943, blind, deaf, and with severe brain damage. She died on 11 September 2010. 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. Tierney won an uncontested divorce in California on 13 March 1947, and the divorce would have been finalized one year later, on 13 March 1948. However, according to Cassini's diary, they reconciled some months before that. They announced that they were back together in April 1948. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper reported the news in the Los Angeles Times on 9 April 1948. Their second daughter, Christina ("Tina"), was born on 19 November 1948 and died in 2015. The couple finally divorced in 1953.

After his divorce from Tierney, Cassini dated and was engaged to Grace Kelly.

Susanna Moore claims that she was raped by Cassini.

Cassini and Tierney remained cordial until her 1991 death, when she bequeathed one dollar to their daughter Daria and the residual to Christina.

In 1971, Cassini married model Marianne Nestor. Beginning in 1971, Marianne operated the licensing and public relations portion of the brand, which they famously defended. Their marriage was kept secret until after his death.

Humanitarian

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. He created collections of manmade fashion fur, the 'evolutionary furs'.

In 1999, he was awarded the Humanitarian Award at a fashion show and Gala at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, honorary chairpersons Eunice Shriver and Senator Ted Kennedy, show hosted by Montel Williams. Among the 40 models were movie star Tippi Hedren. In his own words "What we're designing is as elegant and attractive as fur and eliminates the enormous cruelty that goes on in the killing of animals for fur."

In his autobiography Cassini claims to have suggested to President Kennedy that he take steps to organize the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the action which led to the American Indian Movement. 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. Cassini and his brother Igor, under the pen name of society columnist Cholly Knickerbocker, threw the "Knickerbocker Charity Balls" to raise money for the tribes.