ored dress shirts paired with traditional three-piece suits. During the 1970s, Cassini designed a line of tennis clothes for Munsingwear and a line of swimwear for WaterClothes.
Cassini’s popularity waned after his association with Jacqueline Kennedy ended, and he began transitioning from designer lines to licensed products.
He introduced dresses under the Dress Emporio Oleg Cassini label licensed to He Ro Group, Ltd., and the Cassini Dress Studio label licensed to Dress Industries. Cassini licensed outerwear under the Oleg Cassini Couture label, active wear under the Oleg Cassini Actis label, and sleepwear under the Cassini Intimates label. He also entered into a licensing agreement with Aspects Handbag Company to produce day and evening handbags and launched a fragrance, A Love That Never Ends.
Cassini also continued to expand his men’s business through licensing agreements. He licensed dress and sport shirts to Boonshaft, Inc., then to Burma Bibas, and finally to the Wilk Shirt Corporation. In 1996 Cassini signed a licensing agreement with the Chicago-based Gingiss Formalwear to design a line of tuxedos and formal-wear accessories. This line would become one of Cassini’s most popular licenses, providing stylish, yet moderately priced formal wear to over forty retail stores and 200 fran-chises.
Cassini, who was once known as the White House “Secretary of Style”
for his role in the creation of the Kennedy-era Camelot, is now known primarily for licensing. His name appears on a wide range of products including men’s and women’s moderately priced fashions, ties, luggage, children’s wear, makeup, shoes, and umbrellas. In the 1960s, Cassini dressed the woman who was the closest thing that America has ever had to royalty. Today he lends the cachet of his name to fashions for middle-class America. See also: Jean Patou.
Website: http://ww.olegcassini.com REFERENCES
Milbank, Caroline Rennolds. New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style.
New York: Harry N. Abrans, 1989.
“Oleg Cassini Licenses Gingiss for Formalwear.” Daily News Record 26 (August 1, 1996): 4.
Pogoda, Dianne M. “Oleg Cassini Heads Formal Daytime.” Women’s Wear Daily 162 (October 22, 1991): 24.
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Jean-Charles de Castelbajac
B. November 28, 1949
Birthplace: Casablanca, Morocco
54 Catalina
Awards: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1978 Forum Design, Linz, Austria, 1980 Laforeˆt Museum, Belgium, 1984
Castelbajac began designing for his mother’s apparel manufacturing company, Ko and Co., when he was only eighteen. He introduced his first line for the company in 1968. Soon thereafter, he worked as a design as-sistant at Pierre d’Alby.
After starting his own label in 1970, Castelbajac quickly became known for taking everyday materials, such as gauze, terrycloth, and blankets, and transforming them into garments. He soon shifted to creating wearable art, which peaked in popularity during the early 1980s. At that time, many people turned to art-inspired clothing as a form of conspicuous consump-tion. By working with intense color and architectural shapes, he designed garments which were playful and outspoken without being flashy.
Garments like his sleeping-bag coat, blanket coat, and clear plastic jacket filled with colored feathers cemented his reputation in outerwear. Also known for his sportswear and jeans wear, he outfitted such fashion-forward musicians as Elton John, Rod Stewart, and the Talking Heads. The U.S.
Olympic gymnastic team wore his designs during the 1984 events in Los Angeles.
In addition to designing for his own label, Castelbajac has worked for Carel Shoes, Jesus Jeans, Julie Latour, Levi Strauss, Max Mara, and Les Createur, a design group including Issey Miyake and Emmanuelle Khanh.
From 1994 to 1996, he designed the ready-to-wear collections of Andre´
Courre`ges. He has licensed his name to two fragrances: Premier de Jean-Charles in 1982 followed by a men’s scent. His other licenses include choc-olates, home furnishings, jewelry, and shoes. See also: Levi Strauss; Issey Miyake; Andre´ Courre`ges.
REFERENCES
“Castelbajac Doing Courre`ges RTW Collection.” Women’s Wear Daily 166 (Sep-tember 2, 1993): 7.
George, Leslie. “Fashion Institute of Technology’s Castelbajac Exhibit: Celebrating his U.S. Muse.” Women’s Wear Daily (February 7, 1986).
Martin, Richard, ed. Contemporary Fashion. New York: St. James Press, 1995.
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Catalina
Award: Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Golden 44 Award, 1979
Catalina, a leading swimwear and active-wear company, originated as a manufacturer of underwear and sweaters under the name of Bentz Knitting
Catalina 55
Mills. As the company grew, it underwent several name changes. From Bentz Knitting Mills, the company became Pacific Knitting Mills in 1912;
after that, they became Catalina Knitting Mills in 1928 and finally Catalina in 1955. Catalina launched its first wool knitted swimwear collection in 1912. The company employed Annette Kellerman, an Australian swim star, as a spokesperson to launch their functional, comfortable one-piece suit.
Throughout the 1920s, as swimming and sun tanning became popular pas-times and bathing-beauty contests began to be held on the boardwalk, Cat-alina expanded their swimwear production, always keeping in mind fashion plus function.
The 1930s and 1940s brought new excitement to the swimwear industry:
the invention of Lastex, a rubber-cored thread, known for giving stretch to fabric and providing shaping and support. Catalina, one of the first to use this new thread in the production of their swimwear fabrics, first employed the new elastic thread in men’s swim trunks, which were sometimes referred to as having “Lastex Appeal.”
Catalina was clever when it came to marketing their product lines. The proximity of the company to Hollywood allowed Catalina to draw upon star power to help popularize their lines. Catalina’s association with War-ner Brothers costume desigWar-ner Orry Kelly and makeup artist Perc Westmore helped them gain access to such stars as Ronald Reagan and Marilyn Mon-roe as models for their swimwear. Other designers also supported the Cat-alina label, including Elizabeth Stewart, Gustave Tassell, Frank Smith, and John Norman.
Catalina promoted their swimwear line in the 1940s through beauty pag-eants. The first pageant was the Miss America Pageant held in Atlantic City. Catalina became the sole supplier of the flying-fish logo suits for the competition. Although Catalina ended its exclusive agreement with the Miss America Pageant in 1950, it continued to promote its swimwear through the Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe pageants. Cat-alina was responsible for founding all of these pageants and was exclusively affiliated with them until 1993.
In 1975 Catalina was purchased by Kayser-Roth which sold the company to Taren Holdings Incorporated in 1989. Taren Holdings declared bank-ruptcy in 1993 and sold Catalina to Authentic Fitness Corporation. Cata-lina now consists of six product lines: children’s swimwear, junior swimwear, misses swimwear, misses sportswear, men’s swimwear, and men’s sportswear. Catalina’s main operations are based in Los Angeles, with the manufacturing based in Utah for the swimwear division and in the Far East for the sportswear division. For nine decades, Catalina has
“shaped” the swimwear industry. From the one-piece, skirted, wool bath-ing suits of the 1910s and 1920s, to the first two-piece swimsuits of the 1930s and 1940s, to the tiniest bikinis of today, Catalina has been an important design force in the swimwear industry. Catalina has retained its
56 Nino (Antonio) Cerruti
prominence in the swimwear industry through glamorous promotional events and well-engineered swimwear which always considers fashion plus function.
REFERENCES
Lencek, Lena, and Gideon Bosker. Making Waves: Swimsuits and the Undressing of America. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1989.
Martin, Richard, and Harold Koda. Splash! A History of Swimwear. New York:
Rizzoli, 1990.
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