Gloria Laura Vanderbilt, a member of the prominent United States Vanderbilt family is an accomplished artist, actress, and socialite most noted as a spokeswoman for designer blue jeans. She was the only child of American railroad heir Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt and his second wife, Gloria Laura Mercedes Morgan and became heiress to a four million dollar trust fund on her father's death, when she was two years old. The rights to control this trust fund while Vanderbilt was a minor belonged to her mother. The child, therefore, became the subject of a custody battle in a famous and scandalous trial in 1934 placing her mother against the powerful and influential Vanderbilt family. Vanderbilt's mother eventually lost custody to her sister-in-law Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney but litigation continued. Her most popular fragrance is Vanderbilt, which was launched in 1982.