Arnold Scaasi, fashion designer, dead at 85
He was most famous for a flimsy lace pantsuit designed for Barbra Streisand’s Oscar appearance in 1969
Designer Arnold Scaasi, whose flamboyant creations adorned first ladies, movie stars and socialites, has died.
Scaasi died early on Tuesday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital of cardiac arrest, said his longtime friend, Michael Selleck, executive vice-president of sales and marketing at Simon & Schuster. The designer was 85.
Scaasi — which was his given name, Isaacs, spelled backward — specialised in made-to-order clothes, often in ornate, brilliantly coloured fabrics and trimmings like beads and ostrich feathers.
However, one of his most famous designs was a flimsy lace pantsuit designed for Barbra Streisand’s Oscar appearance in 1969, when she won for Funny Girl in a tie with Katharine Hepburn. It featured bell-bottom pants and matching top in spangly black lace, and the thin fabric used created the impression of nudity.
