Gloria Laura Morgan Vanderbilt (born February 20, 1924) is an American artist, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans. She is a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family of New York and mother of CNN's Anderson Cooper.

Gloria Vanderbilt was born in New York and she is often called the "poor little rich girl". Vanderbilt's life has been a roller coaster ride of intense emotion, privilege, heartbreak, loneliness, sorrow, fame, success and fanally happiness that had been denied her in her youth. Gloria Vanderbilt rose to the top of the fashion world by building a fashion and perfume empire that increased her wealth five times.

During the 1970s, she ventured into the fashion business, first with Glentex, licensing her name for a line of scarves. In 1979, the Murjani Corporation proposed launching a line of designer jeans carrying Vanderbilt's name embossed in script on the back pocket, as well as her swan logo. Vanderbilt appeared in a series of television ads promoting her products, and the line flourished. After Murjani, she began her own company, "GV Ltd.", on 7th Avenue in New York.