Remembering Arnold Scaasi, Jewish Designer to the Stars

With no Jewish holidays coming up immediately, we bring you profiles of some well known and some not so well known Jews. Enjoy.

Known for his tasteful gaudiness—and Barbra Streisand’s memorable 1969 Oscars outfit—the Montreal-born fashion icon believed you never had to tone down to move up

By Rachel Shukert for Tablet

Arnold Scaasi, the legendary fashion designer whose couture creations graced the backs of the greatest Hollywood stars and ladies who lunched (and for all I know, continue to), died last week at the age of 85. Born to a Jewish family in Montreal (his original last name was Isaacs, the spelling of which he ingeniously reversed in order to achieve a certain Continental flair), Scaasi was known above all for his ornate, highly embellished evening gowns and ensembles—perhaps the most famous of his creations was the sheer Peter Pan-collared pantsuit Barbra Streisand wore to the 1969 Oscars, in which she stumbled on her way to the podium (take that, Jennifer Lawrence, you copycat) to collect her Best Actress Oscar for Funny Girl. You remember it—it has all those black sequined balls hanging off of it and was the kind of drop dead chic that would land her on all the worst-dressed lists in this age of nude mermaid fishtail gowns but will be remembered until the last cockroach eats the last blade of grass on a desiccated Planet Earth.

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