Obituary: James Galanos, fashion designer to the famous

James Galanos, who has died at the age of 92, was a fashion designer to the elite. His clients included Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and - perhaps most famously - Nancy Reagan during her years as the US first lady.

Galanos's sheer, elegant gowns, lined with pure chiffon or silk and decorated with embroidered and beaded patterns, were created to feel as luxurious as they looked.

Reagan wore a one-shouldered, silk satin Galanos dress for her husband's 1981 inaugural ball, paired with diamond earrings and a pearl necklace valued at about $100,000.

Although it was then common practice for celebrities to borrow luxury clothes from fashion designers, some thought such behaviour unbecoming for the wife of an American president.

Galanos, a Democrat who remained staunchly apolitical in his approach towards his clients, was unperturbed by the fuss. "I wanted Nancy to look really glamorous," he said. "She's representing the highest office in the country, in the world."

His aesthetic owed much to traditional French haute couture, and his fabrics were sourced in Paris, Milan, Capri and Venice.

"I'm only interested in designing for a certain type of woman," he said. "Specifically, one that has money."

This refusal to compromise set him at odds with the rise of cheap, fast fashion in later years.

By the time he retired in 1998, Galanos had grown disillusioned with the industry's fixation on youth and the tendency towards ever-more revealing outfits.

"We're living in a blue-jean world with itty-bitty tops," he complained.

The only son of Greek immigrants, Galanos was born in Philadelphia on September 20 1924. His mother and father ran a restaurant where James worked from a young age. His ambition from when he was about seven was to work in fashion.

He enrolled in the Traphagen School of Fashion in 1942 but dropped out after less than a year.

For a time he made ends meet selling his sketches to executives on Madison Avenue for $2 a piece, before securing a position with a textile manufacturer and his wife to work on the launch of a ready-to-wear fashion business.

The job fell through when the couple divorced, but the husband arranged for Galanos to go to Paris, where he found work as an intern with Robert Piguet, the mentor of Christian Dior.

Returning to Los Angeles, Galanos set up his own business, Galanos Originals, in 1951 on a loan of $200. He attracted the notice of Vogue's Diana Vreeland and the admiration of Grace Kelly.

He also made a notable contribution to the fashion history of the little black dress, creating a figure-hugging number for Marilyn Monroe that drew much attention for its bare chiffon midriff.

In 1954 he became the youngest designer to win a coveted Coty fashion award. He began designing costumes for film and TV, dressing stars like Judy Garland and Rosalind Russell.

In 1983 Galanos launched his first collection for the furrier Peter Dion, employing mink, sable and broadtail fox to create dramatic, full-figured silhouettes.

Following his retirement, Galanos returned to his boyhood interest in photography, staging several exhibitions.

In 2001 a plaque in his honour was laid on Seventh Avenue in New York - known as America's "Fashion Walk of Fame".

He never married.

1924-2016