L'Wren Scott

Born: April 28, 1964; Died: March 17, 2014

L'Wren Scott, who has died aged 49, was a celebrated model, fashion designer, stylist and the partner of Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones. Her slim-fitting dresses were favourites among well-known women including Oprah Winfrey, Madonna and Nicole Kidman.

She had been dating Jagger since 2001 and they were often seen at events, with the 6ft, 3in tall Scott towering over her rock-star boyfriend.

She was born Luann Bambrough and grew up in the small town of Roy in Utah where she had a religious upbringing - her parents were Mormon. Her first ambition was to become a ballet dancer but by the age of 12 she was already 6ft tall which ruled out that career.

For a while, she taught gymnastics to school pupils before she was spotted by Bruce Weber while he was doing a shoot for Calvin Klein in Utah. He suggested she go to Paris to find work as a model which was what she did. She bought a one-way ticket (telling her parents that she was going to visit friends in New York) and left for a possible new life as a model in France. It was at this point that she changed her name from Luann Bambrough to the more glamorous L'Wren Scott.

She quickly found work, modelling for Chanel among other big names, but it was her legs that attracted the most attention. She modelled for several stocking campaigns, most famously for Pretty Polly, a campaign that was shot by David Bailey.

After a while, she became jaded with modelling and moved to New York to pursue a career as a designer and stylist. She had first started making her own clothes when she was a teenager - often because she could not find anything flattering for her size - and began to establish a reputation for designing sleek and elegant clothes. One of her fans, the actress Ellen Barkin, once said: "If I looked naked like I look in one of her dresses, I'd be happy."

In 2006, Scott unveiled her eponymous label with her first collection inspired by the little black dress and over the last decade became one of New York's most famous designers. She also designed clothes for Jagger, whom she first met on a photoshoot in 2001; they went public with their relationship in 2005 and she went on to work on the Rolling Stones documentary Shine a Light, which was directed by Martin Scorsese. She also worked as a stylist on a number of films including Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut in 1999 and Ocean's Thirteen in 2007.

Her great height always drew attention but from a young age she was determined not to be embarrassed by it and never slouched. "I have always had composure," she once said. "I don't think that you can 6ft 3in and care if people talk about you. So I think, just from sheer stature, I developed a kind of shield early on."

Scott, who was found dead in her apartment in an apparent suicide, had cancelled a planned show for her fashion label at London Fashion Week last month.

The last collection she showed, in September 2013, was inspired by Japanese culture and featured embroidery and sleek lines: white below-the-knee dresses belted at the waist; red, black and white skirts, shorts and jackets; a bold yellow dress and trousers.

She collaborated with many in the fashion and beauty industry, including Lancome for her first makeup collection, and designed Italian-made shoes, handbags and eyewear, and a small holiday collection for Banana Republic last year.

Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour said: "L'Wren was a total perfectionist, someone who absolutely embodied everything her marvellous clothes stood for: strength of character combined with a confident and powerful style."