Gloria Vanderbilt Passed Away!

American iconic model Gloria Vanderbilt passed away.

Gloria Laura Vanderbilt was an American artist, author, actress, fashion designer, heiress and socialite. She was a member of the Vanderbilt family and is mother of CNN agitator Anderson Cooper.

She died in her Manhattan home with friends and family at her side.

"Gloria Vanderbilt was an extraordinary woman, who loved life, and lived it on her own terms," Cooper said in a statement. "She was a painter, a writer and designer but also a remarkable mother, wife, and friend.

"She was 95 years old, but ask anyone close to her, and they'd tell you: She was the youngest person they knew -- the coolest and most modern."

Vanderbilt was diagnosed with an advanced form of stomach cancer earlier this month, Cooper said.

She was famous before she became famous. When she was a young girl, her mother and paternal aunt got into a huge feud over her well-being. Her mother Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt was feuding with Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. They were both disputing the custody and control of the little child's trust fund.

It was called the "trial of the century" by the junk food media and the court proceedings let to sensationalism. Gertrude proved to the courts that Gloria was an unfit parent and lost custody rights.

It was disputed all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court threw the case back to the lower courts and it stood firm that Gertrude was the guardian of little Gloria.

Gloria was the focus of media attention at an early age, dubbed "the poor little rich girl" amid an intense custody battle between her mother and her father's wealthy sister, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Though her aunt prevailed in court proceedings, young Gloria didn't know her well. She considered her nanny, Dodo, her mother figure.

"As a teenager she tried to avoid the spotlight, but reporters and cameramen followed her everywhere," Cooper said. "She was determined to make something of her life, determined to make a name for herself, and find the love she so desperately needed."

Modeling was an early interest, and at 15 she was photographed for Harper's Bazaar, the first of many appearances as a fashion model. She'd go on to appear in Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines and to pose for renowned photographers, such as Richard Avedon.

When she was 17, she married Hollywood agent Pat DiCicco in 1941, against her Aunt Gertrude's wishes. She'd later concede she knew it was a mistake at the time.

At 21, she took control of a $4.3 million trust fund her father had left her. She divorced DiCicco two months later and promptly remarried -- this time, to conductor Leopold Stokowski, who was 63 at the time.

"I knew him for a week and married three weeks later," she told Cooper during an interview.

Asked if her friends thought it was weird that she had fallen for a man four decades her senior, she said, "Didn't matter to me."

A fashion icon.

Vanderbilt made her mark on American fashion by debuting what was arguably the first designer denim brand. After working as an actress, starting in the ‘50s, moving from theater productions to television dramas, Vanderbilt experimented with textile and home design in the ‘70s, also designing some dresses. This ultimately led to a partnership with Mohan Murjani of the Murjani Group to design blouses and then to launch her eponymous Gloria Vanderbilt fashion brand in 1976 with a line of name-brand women’s jeans, identified by her handwritten name embroidered on the back and a signature swan logo on the inner front pocket that winked at her first theater role in The Swan.

Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt, who began modeling when she was a teenager, served as the face of the label. The jeans were marketed with a $1 million television ad campaign, touting their perfect tapered fit that catered to women’s curves, making sleek designer denim a chic wardrobe staple. The jeans were also showcased by female stars such as Debbie Harry of Blondie (who made an ad for the brand) and on sitcoms Three’s Company, Mork and Mindy, and Dynasty. The line ultimately expanded to include additional women’s apparel, footwear, jewelry, fragrance and home accessories.

In 2002, the Jones Apparel Group acquired the rights to Gloria Vanderbilt Apparel Corp. Three years later, the company issued a reboot of the original ‘70s designs with an ad campaign featuring supermodels Gisele Bundchen, Kate Moss and Daria Webowy.

“Gloria was an icon,” Tommy Hilfiger told The Hollywood Reporter. “I met her in the early '80s through the Murjani family who owned the Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans business. We were launching the Tommy Hilfiger business with Murjani around the same time. She was a lovely, sophisticated woman with warmth and kindness.”