Born Oleg Aleksandrovich Loiewski, the son of aristocratic Russians, Cassini changed his name after the family fled Russia during the 1917 revolution and ended up in Italy. He started his career as a designer in Rome before landing in America on Christmas Day, 1936, equipped only (according to his autobiography,) with a tuxedo, two tennis rackets, a title and talent. He moved to Hollywood, where he established a successful career as a costume designer dressing everyone from Rita Haywoth to Joan Crawford – he also dated, and was briefly engaged to Grace Kelly. It was in 1961, however, that he embarked on his most high profile career moment – his tenure as ‘Secretary of Style,” to the Kennedy White House.

A friend of Jackie’s from the early days of her marriage, Cassini was summoned to Georgetown Hospital where she was recuperating after the birth of John soon after the election and asked to produce a series of sketches outlining his vision for her wardrobe. He tells of being terrified. With only two days to prepare, he had to somehow come up with an entire proposal for the job of a lifetime. As he writes, “suddenly, it came to me. This is like a film and you have the opportunity to dress the female star. This was not so different from my old job in Hollywood.  So, in broad outlines, I designed a concept… She was the perfect model for very simple lines – a minimalist par excellence. I wanted to dress her cleanly, architecturally, in style. I would use the most sumptuous fabrics in the purest interpretations. I called it the “A-Line.”

And so an indelible style was born, with repercussions that ripple across the fashion world still today. According to Cassini, it very nearly didn’t happen. On arriving at the hospital, he found the First Lady already surrounded by sketches submitted by designers from all around the world. He, however, offered a different vision. One in which they would redefine the perception of not only Jackie Kennedy but also of the White House, American fashion – indeed, of America.  “I want you to be the most elegant woman in the world. I think that you should start from scratch with a look… a look that will set trends and not follow them.” And she replied, “You are absolutely right.”

That look is something we can all still identify today. Clean shift dresses, pillbox hats, boxy jackets, strapless A line gowns and clearly defined uses of color spoke of a timeless simplicity as relevant now as then. Both Cassini and Kennedy were acutely aware of the rules of the job – “I will never become stuffy – but there is a dignity to the office which suddenly hits one…” wrote Jackie in a letter to Cassini – but they adhered to them with freshness, modernity and total strength of vision. In doing so, they created a persona with a power that lasted way beyond any natural lifetime.

The revised edition of Oleg Cassini’s book A Thousand Days of Magic is published by Rizzoli and out now

Photo Courtesy of www.thedress.it, agnautacouture.com, pinterest.com,  www.coletterie.com, dressingvintage.com

Whilst 1040 Fifth Avenue might not have been anything like as large as the living quarters she had been afforded in the White House, visitors to it noted the same design touches, it’s old world feel, and it’s lack of pretension and it’s cosiness. During Sotheby’s famous sale of it’s contents in 1996, the world was granted a glimpse inside its doors. And, as Carolina Herrera once said of it in an interview in Vanity Fair, “”It was an apartment of someone who comes from an old family. Not a showplace full of marble like the homes of all these new people. It was her taste.”

That taste preferred the personal over the grand. A fan of print and colour, Jackie liked to head to a firm called Design Works for her prints in the early 1970′s. Red and gold drapes coloured the dining room, whilst chintzes covered the sofas, and bold, graphic prints were found on tablecloths.  A fan of chinoiserie, she decorated with laquer cabinets, blue and white chinoiserie lamps and even had a screen festooned in cherry blossom. There was an easel she liked to draw at in the living room, books scattered throughout the apartment, pictures of horses and dogs on the walls and the same kitchen existed virtually unchanged for the thirty odd years she lived there. 1040 5th Avenue was a home – not a style statement. Much like with her approach to fashion, it was the result of an uncompromising approach to her very own and very personal aesthetic – and no one else’s.  Click through our gallery above for pictures of it here.

Pictures:

Painting by Aaron Shikler of Jackie Kennedy with John and Caroline in the Living room at 1040 Fifth Avenue

The entrance to 1040 Fifth Avenue

Jackie, John and Caroline outside 1040 Fifth Avenue

Ron Gallela’s shot of Jackie outside her apartment

Interiors pictures from the Sotheby’s sale of the apartment contents, 1996