California Apparel News

Eletra Casadei died on Sept. 27 following a long battle with brain cancer. She was 55 years old.

In recent years, the designer split her time between her retail store, Eletra Casadei in Pacific Palisades, Calif., and her contemporary collection, Casadei by Eletra Casadei, which launched in 2003.

Casadei’s role in the Los Angeles fashion community stretches back to the 1970s. But her business boomed in the 1980s, with a collection of prom and party dresses called TD4, which stood for “too die for.”“

She ruled that arena—it was almost unprecedented,” recalled Pam Roberts, a public-relations executive who met Casadei when Roberts was fashion director of the CalMart, now called the California Market Center.

TD4 sold in major department stores, including The Broadway, Bullocks and Macy’s, Roberts said, and featured girly silhouettes and glamorous embellishments.

At the time, the designer began making fashion videos to promote her collection, according to Roberts.

Janet Orsi, owner of Orsi Public Relations in Los Angeles, was Casadei’s publicist then and recalled two videos in particular, a prom-themed video that featured TD4 dresses (www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJabeba-PxI) and another titled “Adventures of the Countess” (www.babelgum.com/116430/eletra-casadei-adventures-the-countess.htmin), which the designer starred in alongside her dresses.

“Those videos were innovative—and expensive,” Orsi said. “She was always very creative and willing to do the next most-interesting thing.”

In the 1990s, Casadei turned her attention to red-carpet designs and, following the lead of Los Angeles designer Allen Schwartz, began turning out her own interpretation of gowns worn at the Academy Awards.

“She was a great designer and a really good technician,” Orsi said.

In 2006, Casadei opened her first retail store in Pacific Palisades, her hometown of many years.

The designer gutted the 800-square-foot space, giving it a modern yet feminine makeover, including wrought-iron rolling racks, a wall of windows and a polished concrete floor with a broken-tile inlay.

The designer divided her time between the store and her factory in downtown Los Angeles—but told the California Apparel News that she enjoyed working with her retail customers and incorporating their comments into her wholesale designs.

“The store has been an inspiration for me because it has brought me in contact with my customers and [enabled me to take the collection] forward because I know what they want,” Casadei said at the time. “I can take my experience here and bring it back downtown.”

Textile representative Carol Sachs-Goldman, who had known Casadei since the 1970s, described the designer as “a tough cookie.”

After Casadei opened the boutique, Sachs-Goldman began working part-time with her, managing the store.

Throughout the designer’s illness, she continued to work, Sachs-Goldman said.

“I never saw anyone fight the way this woman fought,” she said. “I think she was extremely courageous.”

But she also had a spiritual side that Sachs-Goldman said she got to know in recent years.

Indeed, many who knew her well described her humor and her sense of fun.

“She had a huge heart, she was gorgeous, and she was funny,” Orsi said. “We called her the ’glammy’—she was a glamour queen.”

Casadei is survived by her mother, two sisters and a son.

Casadei grew up in Hayward, Calif., and got her start first as a model in San Francisco, according to her sister, Andrea.

“She was [named the] Maid of Hayward in 1972,” Andrea Casadei said. “My mom was saying, ’She’s been a glamour queen her whole life—ever since she was a little girl.’”

Early on, she discovered a lifelong passion for the industry.

“Eletra loved her job—she could eat, drink and sleep the garment industry,” her sister said, noting that Eletra Casadei twice was named “Designer of the Year” by the Dallas Fashion Awards—in 1989 and in 2002.

A memorial service is planned for 3 p.m. on Oct. 11 at the Corpus Christ Church in Pacific Palisades. —Alison A. Nieder