Eletra Casadei, an acclaimed designer of glamorous evening wear, lost her fight with brain cancer on September 27 at her home in Pacific Palisades, where she had been a resident since 1980. She was 55. Casadei was born in Hayward, California, and as a child designed and sewed clothes for her Barbie dolls. As a teenager she won the title ‘Maid of Hayward.’ She attended Cal State L.A., then did graduate work at Loyola Marymount in international business management before working as a store buyer. She began designing clothes during the disco era, and her label during that time, TD4 (To Die For), was an instant success; one of the top stars during that time wearing her label was Donna Summer. ‘Donna was singing, I was designing her gowns,’ said Casadei, who remained good friends with the singer/songwriter. Her clothes were also an instant hit with American teenagers, who put away the Sweet Sixteen prom dress look and replaced their formals with Casadei’s affordable strapless, backless, updated styles. A former fashion model, Casadei wore her own designs, and during the 1980s her fashions were carried in more than 7,000 boutiques and department stores. Actresses in television shows like ‘Golden Girls’ and ‘Dynasty’ wore her flaunt-it fashions. Casadei was also the first to use fashion-music videos that allowed designers to show their clothes in a new venue. The videos played in stores and wholesale showrooms as well as on MTV. In the 1990s, Casadei continued making fashion affordable for women who wanted to look great but couldn’t afford haute couture as she sewed remakes of the most popular celebrity dresses. According to the L.A. Times, a Casadei remake of the Valentino gown that Julia Roberts wore to the 2001 Academy Awards sold for $169. Two years ago, Casadei opened a store on Via da le Paz, which carried not only evening gowns, but skirts, pants and tops made of satin, cotton and lace. ‘I’m known for my romantic lace design,’ she told the Palisadian-Post. Her evening-gown line was sold under the Eletra Casadei Black Label, and her ready-to-wear line was under the Casadei label. She told the Post that one of the reasons she liked having a retail store was seeing what clothing people responded to. ‘I’m kind of experimenting in my own store,’ said Casadei, who started carrying T-shirts as a direct result of having a store. ‘Palisades women really got me going on T-shirts again. This is a very casual group who lives here.’ After Casadei was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in the summer of 2006, her philosophy of fashion changed. ‘I’m not supposed to be here,’ she told the Post in a February 2007 interview, noting that part of her brain had been removed the summer before in an operation. ‘They told me that I had a cancer that would kill me and if somehow I survived, I’d be paralyzed. I’m on record at Cedars-Sinair as a medical miracle.’ Casadei felt that one of the reasons she was still alive after the initial diagnosis was because she needed to take care of women, to work with them. ‘We’re in a time where fashion is about a feeling’a feeling of who we are,’ she said. ‘When you walk in a room, before I even speak, you’re going to be judged. It’s not about what Vogue magazine says is in style. Today it is about who we feel we are and what we feel good in.’ Survivors include her son, Nico Roe, a graduate of Loyola High School, who now attends the U.S. Naval Academy; her mother, Verna Casadei; and sisters Andrea Casadei Best and Janelle Brunelli. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 11 at Corpus Christi Church on Carey Street.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
