Mick Jagger's girlfriend, Designer L'Wren Scott, commits suicide

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L'Wren Scott has been found dead after hanging herself in her Manhattan apartment on Monday morning.

A spokesman for Mick Jagger said the singer, who is in Australia as part of the Rolling Stones tour, was 'completely shocked and devastated' following the news of her death.

When asked if there were still in a relationship at the time of her death, he replied ‘of course’.

The designer, 49, was found by her assistant and there was no immediate suspicion of foul play though the Medical Examiner has not yet released the formal report.

A spokeswoman for New York City Police Department said: 'A 49-year-old female was found this morning at 10.05am at 200 11th Avenue. She was unconscious.'

'She was pronounced dead on arrival by the emergency medical services. The investigation is ongoing. We are awaiting medical examiners to determine the cause of death.'

There was little to cause suspicion ahead of the shattering discovery, as her official Twitter account was updated at 11am- an hour after her body was reportedly found.

She was found hanged to death in her apartment on the eighth floor of a luxury building in Chelsea where Nicole Kidman- one of her most famous fans- also has a flat. The building features a garage elevator which allows residents to drive their cars up to the floor of their apartment.

The Mormon-raised designer has been romantically linked to the Rolling Stones frontman since 2001.

The couple met on the set of a photo shoot in 2001 when she was working as the stylist on call. They made for an unlikely pairing: as well as being 23 years Mick’s junior, at 6ft 3in, she stands head and shoulders above her 5ft 8in lover.

'L'Wren is very independent and would not take any nonsense from anyone no matter how famous they were,' her adopted mother Lula Bambrough told a newspaper in 2003.

'She usually knows what she wants and she gets it. It doesn't surprise me at all that she's tamed Mick. She is very much her own woman and it would be my guess that is why this Mick Jagger likes her.'

Scott split her time between London, where she has a design studio in Chelsea, and New York. She and Mr Jagger also own an apartment on Paris’s Left Bank that once featured in Vogue.

She ranked among The Hollywood Reporter’s 25 Most Powerful Stylists in 2011, 2012 and 2013, but failed to make the list this year.

She also cancelled her New York and London fashion shows, citing delays in production.

Fans including Oprah Winfrey, Sarah Jessica Parker and Michelle Obama. She had even been tipped to design Angelina Jolie’s wedding dress.

Celebrities wax lyrical about her creations.

Nicole Kidman told the Telegraph in 2011 that 'she knows what aspects to accentuate in a woman, and is able to make you feel incredibly sexy and sophisticated when you are in one of her exquisite designs.'

And Christina Hendricks told the same paper: 'L'Wren's clothes make you feel like a sexy pin-up, a sophisticated lady and a rockstar all at once. She designs for how women want to look and for what men want to look at.'

Scott first broke into the fashion industry as a model and then a stylist before launching an eponymous line in 2006 that was a major hit with celebrities.

She continued to widen her brand and at the end of last year, she launched a collaboration with Banana Republic, starring alongside models in the ads.

L’Wren Scott was adopted and raised in Roy, Utah by her Mormon parents and graduated high school in 1985.

She regularly cited her traditional upbringing- her father worked in insurance and her mother at a local bank- as the root of her hard work ethic.

'I had to learn to sew when I was growing up, because nothing else fitted me,' she told The Telegraph in a 2011 interview.

Her name was originally Luann Bambrough until she changed it to the more exotic 'L'Wren' when she launched her modelling career at age 17.

She stood at 6ft3in tall and caught the eye of celebrity photographer Bruce Weber who advised that she move to Paris to pursue a career as a model where she went on to work for Thierry Mugler and Chanel.

Then in the 1990s she moved to California and established herself as a stylist which led her to work closely with photographer Herb Ritts and Karl Lagerfeld. She has styled many celebrities including Madonna, Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks.

She launched her first designer collection, named Little Black Dress, in 2006.

It achieved huge success – particularly her figure-hugging ‘Headmistress’ dress - with celebrity fans including Sarah Jessica Parker and Michelle Obama.

L’Wren also worked styling costumes on film sets including Ocean’s Thirteen, Eyes Wide Shut and Shine a Light, a Martin Scorsese documentary about the Rolling Stones.

Her designs are said to be so flattering that she once told the Sunday Times that wearers have no need for Spanx.

It is perhaps for this reason that her creations have become beloved by curvy and svelte stars alike– and both Penelope Cruz and Amy Adams wore L’Wren Scott gowns when they attended the 2011 Academy Awards as new mothers .

Ellen Barkin is such a fan of the designer that she has previously said that everything in her closet that is not vintage was created by Scott.

She explained that while working as a stylist to the stars, she learned that not everything is as it seems when dealing with celebrities.

'You'll see the most perfect person and you are like, God, she's, like, perfect. And then she'll tell you everything that's not perfect. Everyone has their own special set of problems--in their own minds,' she told Harper's Bazaar in 2011.

In 2010 she designed a make-up collection with Lancome that featured her signature rich burgundy lipstick, and in 2011 she launched a handbag named the ‘Lula’ after her mother, who is deceased.

The designer had been especially busy of late too. At the end of last year, she designed a holiday collection for Banana Republic – but last month she shocked the fashion set when she cancelled her London Fashion Week show at short notice. The designer blamed production delays in key show and couture pieces, according to WWD.

Explaining her sexy aesthetic, she told Harper’s Bazaar that she designs with men in mind.

'Guys understand a waistline. They understand a silhouette. I dress for men. I have to feel good, you know what I mean?'

A FASHIONABLE LIFE FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS: HOW LUANN BAMROUGH BECAME THE DESIGNER NAMED 'L'WREN'

L’Wren Scott grew up as plain Luann Bambrough in the one-horse town of Roy, Utah, where she was raised by her Mormon parents Lula and Ivan.
Family: L'Wren's brother Randall lives and works in Utah, not far from where they were raised

The religious couple had adopted L’Wren as a baby, though not much detail is known of the circumstances, although she frequently credited her mother and father for instilling her with a strict work ethic.

Ivan served in the US Navy during WWII vet before returning to settle in Roy where he worked as account executive for the insurance company Blue Cross and Blue Shield for 35 years until his death in 2002. He and Lula, a bank clerk who died in 2008, were very active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and religion was a large part of L’Wren’s upbringing alongside her brother Randy and sister, Jan. Her father even served as a High Priest and Bishop for the church.

L’Wren stood out in the small town after shooting up to the height of 6ft by the age of 12. She eventually grew to 6ft3 inches with 42 inch legs, raven hair and porcelain skin.

Her glamor did not go unnoticed and after graduating high school in 1985 aged 17, she was spotted by celebrity photographer Bruce Weber who convinced her to move to Paris to start a career as a fashion model. It was then that she changed her name to L’Wren Scott.

She was reportedly the longest-legged lady that designers had ever seen quickly landed a succession of high-profile modeling gigs—for the likes of Chanel and Thierry Mugler.

In 1994, tiring of Paris, Scott reinvented herself again, moving to Los Angeles to head up PR for Prada.

It was then she began work as a celebrity stylist, working a great deal with celebrity photographer Herb Ritts. She soon became the go to dresser for stars including Nicole Kidman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Barkin and Julianne Moore.

In 2001 she began dating Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger after meeting at a photo-shoot in Paris where she had been hired as a stylist.

They made for an unusual coupling, as she stood head and shoulders above his 5ft8inch frame and was 23 years his junior.

In 2006, Scott finally decided to launch (with Jagger's help) her own line of clothing and has since launched many collections that have won the praise of the A-List. Sarah Jessica Parker once said: 'I think L'Wren has an extraordinary ability to make dresses that genuinely flatter a woman. She makes an unbelievably contemporary dress in a remarkably old-fashioned way for all sorts of women and body types.'

She also designed lines for Barney’s in New York and Banana Republic.

Though she based her showroom in Paris, Scott spent her time shuttling between the London home she shared with Jagger and her apartment in New York where she was found dead by her assistant on the morning of March 17.