L’Wren Scott dead: ‘I am a fashion designer, I don’t want to be known as Mick Jagger's girlfriend’

The achievements of the late designer, who was found dead yesterday, have been largely overshadowed in reports

What would L’Wren Scott have made of being referred to as Mick Jagger’s girlfriend first, and a fashion designer second?

The 6ft 3in former model, who has dressed some of the world's best known people - including Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie and Michelle Obama - was found by her assistant in her Manhattan apartment at around 10.05am yesterday morning. She had reportedly committed suicide.

Reports of her tragic death spread quickly, gathering pace on Twitter as social media outlets rushed to break the story first.

And yet almost all of them did so by referencing her connection to the Rolling Stones frontman (Radio 2 omitted using her name in its report entirely), who was on tour with the band in Australia at the time, as her primary means of identification.

"I'm a fashion designer. I don't want to be defined as someone's girlfriend," she told The Times last year.

"You always wonder if people will pay attention to the hard work that goes into what you do."

Many of her supporters took to the micro blogging site to criticise the lack of credit given to the late designer by news sources:

Similarly, prominent female journalists Clare Balding, Alice Arnold and Rachel Johnson have all tweeted their disapproval at the way Scott's death has been reported.

Scott, 49, had managed to craft a successful career after being adopted by Mormon parents in Utah.

After she graduated from high school, she was flown to Paris to work as a model for Chanel and appear in a campaign shot by renowned fashion photographer David Bailey. It was during this time that she changed her name from Luann Bambrough to L'Wren Scott.

During the early 90s, she built up a reputation working as a stylist on photoshoots, working on huge fashion and beauty campaigns and contributing costumes to films, including Eyes Wide Shut and Ocean's Thirteen.

She came out with her first own-label collection, Little Black Dress, in 2006 - five years after she started dating 70-year-old Jagger - and worked on a Martin Scorsese documentary about the Rolling Stones in 2008.

Scott went on to dress some of the best known stars in the world for events like the Oscars and the Golden Globes and was rumoured to be designing Angelina Jolie's wedding gown.

At the time of her death, she had just launched a more affordable line of women's fashion with Banana Republic and a beauty collaboration with Bobbi Brown.

She was also thought to be in millions of pounds of debt through her own label. It was thought that her financial struggles were partly to blame for the cancellation of her most recent show date at London Fashion Week. And yet, according to reports, she refused to take money from her partner.

Since her body was discovered, tributes have continued to pour in. One of the first to take to Twitter was Jagger's ex-wife, Bianca Jagger.

"Heartbroken to learn of the loss of the lovely and talented L'Wren Scott. My thoughts and prayers are with her family," she wrote. "May she rest in peace."

Others include her friends in Duran Duran, actresses Olivia Munn and Emmy Rossum, fashion designer Marc Jacobs and Michelle Obama.

A spokesperson for Mick Jagger said that he was "shocked and devastated" by the news. He is currently thought to be travelling back from Australia with his model daughter Georgia May Jagger, who cancelled her recent appearance at an Australian Fashion Festival to be with her grieving father.