Arnold Scaasi, a founding Member of the CFDA and favorite of the Ladies-who-Lunch set as well as First Ladies from Mamie Eisenhower to Laura Bush, died Monday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He was 85.

Born Arnold Isaacs in Montreal (he deliberately reversed his name to sound Italian), the son of a furrier began his career at the renowned Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne college in Paris. Upon his graduation, he came to New York to work with Charles James before striking out on his own.

“He was the first designer who burst onto the scene by going from nothing to being a star in the 1950s,” recalled former CFDA President Stan Herman. “It was just unheard of then. He was doing a fashion show at the Plaza hotel and all of a sudden, everybody deified him.

Scaasi was known for his impeccably tailored suits and glamorous eveningwear and cocktail dresses trimmed with feathers, fur, sequins, or fine embroidery—and an equally exuberant personality to boot. In addition to Mamie Eisenhower and Laura Bush, he has dressed Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton, as well as Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, Lauren Bacall, Brooke Astor, Diahann Carroll, Catherine Deneuve, Arlene Francis, and Mary Tyler Moore.

In 1968, he caught the eye of a worldwide audience when Barbra Streisand wore his sheer overblouse and pants ensemble to collect her Academy Award for Funny Girl.

“Arnold made clothes for women and understood the power of celebrity  before the rest of the industry caught on,” said Steven Kolb, President and CEO of the CFDA. “He was a showman both in how he designed and with his way of life.  As a founding member of the CFDA, he helped define the purpose of the organization and never stopped sharing his opinions and ideas.”

“Everyone was kind of shocked [at the CFDA’s inception] because it was like stepping away from another group that was bigger [the Couture Group] and kind of like what the CFDA is today,” Scaasi said at the time. “A great many of the people in that group were people who went to Paris and bought from the couture to make line-for-line copies. . . . We were separating ourselves from the manufacturers, which was more of a reaction to Eleanor [Lambert] than to the Couture Group, because Eleanor was very much in the forefront of the other group until she formed the CFDA. The main thing was to take the creative designers away [from the manufacturers and the Couture Group] and ‘creative’ was a very important word at that moment. When she did that, it [the CFDA] really took off.”

Scaasi introduced the CFDA to Ernest Trova who created the trophy for the CFDA Fashion Awards. During his career, he was honored by the CFDA – in 1987 for “Creative Excellence” and in 1997 with a “Lifetime Achievement” award. Scaasi also received every other conceivable award in fashion. In 1959, he won the coveted Coty Award for, as Diana Vreeland wrote, “clothes that are feminine, glamorous and sensuous – made by a master and superb colorist!” He continued with the same fashion ethics throughout his life.

Scaasi was the subject of two books, “Scaasi: A Cut Above” (Rizzoli) and “Women I Have Dressed (and Undressed!)” (Scribner). Major retrospectives of his work have been mounted in venues across the world. In New York, the Historical Society Museum and The Museum at The Fashion Institute of Technology have shown extraordinary examples of his work to over 200,000 people.

Scaasi is survived by his husband Parker Ladd. Scaasi married Ladd after 50 years of companionship in 2011. The celebration, quite fittingly, took place at Le Cirque. (courtesy: CFDA)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the death of artist Romain de Tirtoff with the showcase of shoe-inspired art work he did for famed New York manufacturer Herman Delman.

Running till September 28 at the museum’s Robert Wood Johnson, Jr. Gallery, the exhibition feature drawings that depict everything from ruffled booties to column-heeled pumps, highlighting the secondary colors and fluid geometry Erté was known for. The works in the exhibit are also accompanied by several pairs of shoes from the era by other designers; the museum notes that while Erté and Delman collaborated for several years, only the illustrations of the shoes remain.

This isn’t the first time Erté’s pieces were shown under the Met’s roof, the museum also acquired 13 original shoe designs by Erté for Delman in 1967.

Under the creative direction of Jeremy Scott, Moschino has opened its second store in Manhattan’s SoHo at 73 Wooster Street. Covering an area of 703-square-foot, the new boutique features Scott’s vibrant, colorful, and playful aesthetic. Other stunning characteristics of the shop are a mannequin that nearly reaches the ceiling and jumbo hangers. The label’s new iconic accessories, from a jacket-shaped handbag to a leather hat, turn gigantic in the boutique’s four corners and a pair of oversized high-heel pumps serves as footwear display. The store is stand out for its ironic pop décor teeming with gigantic objects.