Venerable fashion designer L’Wren Scott, who was found dead in her New York apartment on Monday, dressed everyone from movie stars to First Ladies, in classic and distinctive styles that worked well on almost all body types. She taught herself to sew during her childhood in Utah, partly because she stood 6 feet tall and couldn’t find any clothes to fit her. Her clothes routinely won spots on Best Dressed lists, which made her a popular pick for first-time red carpet stars.

She even won the approval of the notoriously hard-to-impress Vogue editor Anna Wintour. “L’Wren was a total perfectionist, someone who absolutely embodied everything her marvelous clothes stood for: strength of character combined with a confident and powerful style,” Wintour said in a statement. “In person, L’Wren was always unbelievably generous, gracious, kind, and so much fun. Her old world American manners and charm were from another time, but her sensibility was always fiercely modern. We will all miss her.”

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Write to Charlotte Alter at charlotte.alter@time.com and Mia Tramz at mia.tramz@time.com.

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