Vertical Cloud

A visit to a stylish Australian aunt at the age of fourteen instilled within Arnold Scaasi an interest in fashion and helped to cement the foundations of a career that would see him dress the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy, among other stars and socialites. In 1962, at the onset of this dazzling and decades-long career, he encountered a young Parker Ladd strolling along Central Park South. What both gentlemen anticipated to be a quick fling turned into a partnership lasting over half a century. The pair moved into a home in 1991 at Beekman Place that housed their impressive art collection, a compilation of paintings by Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger and Claude Monet, as well as sculptures by Louise Nevelson, who also happened to be a customer of Scassi. Nevelson provided multiple works in a variety of scale and media for their residences, including an elaborate ceiling work commissioned specifically for the room, but it was Vertical Cloud that became a symbol of their collection. In a stroke of creativity, Scassi and Ladd installed Vertical Cloud above the fireplace in the main room—the most prominent real estate a work of art can be provided—anchoring it as the centerpiece of the room and, by extension, as a truly cherished work within their own collection.