Barbra Streisand, Natalie Wood, Arlene Francis, Diahann Carroll, Joan Rivers, Mamie Eisenhower, Barbara Bush, Louise Nevelson... What these women have in common is that all were dressed by Scaasi. From his meteoric rise on Seventh Avenue in the late 1950s through his heyday in the boom decade of the 1980s, Arnold Scaasi has remained one of the most distinctive and successful designers in American fashion. With his signature combination of elegance, flamboyance, surprising colors and fabrics, and finely honed craftsmanship, Scaasi is both a bold American original and a couturier in the grand European tradition. Arnold Scaasi: American Couturier presents the best of Scaasi's fashions in a handsomely packaged, fluidly organized volume. Alongside sumptuous portraits of more than three dozen outfits, the book features numerous period photographs; sketches, notes and clippings from Scaasi's personal archives, most of them never before published; and interviews with Scaasi's famous clients, such as Joan Rivers, Mary Tyler Moore and Diahann Carroll, conducted specifically for this volume. A feast for fashion watchers and design aficionados alike, American Couturier contains all the glamour and thrill that for decades have been synonymous with the Scaasi label.
Arnold Scaasi (born 1931) apprenticed at the House of Paquin in Paris, before moving to New York to work with Charles James. In 1956 he began a ready-to-wear line; in 1968, he caught the eye of a worldwide audience when Barbra Streisand wore his overblouse and pants ensemble to collect her Academy Award for Funny Girl, making Scaasi a household name overnight.