Oscar de la Renta spent half a century dressing celebrities and royalty in haute couture and on October 20, 2014 the designer who had been rumored to be ill died at the age of 82.
De la Renta has styled every first lady since Jackie Kennedy and celebrities ranging from Oprah Winfrey to George Clooney’s bride, Amal Alamuddin on her wedding day.
Oscar de la Renta was a Domican born fashion designer who was born in Santo Domingo and taught by Cristobal Balenciaga and Antonio del Castillo. His name became internationally known during the 1960s when the designer began dressing first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy.
In 1963 de la Renta sought out editor-in-chief of Vogue, Diana Vreeland about starting his collection. Vreeland told de la Renta to “go to Arden because you will make your reputation faster. She is not a designer, so she will promote you. At the other place, you will always be eclipsed by the name of Dior.” He went and worked for Arden for two years and then began working for Jane Derby and launched his own label in 1965. In August of 1965 when Derby passed, de la Renta took over the brand.
Oscar de la Renta designed the haute couture collection for for the House of Balmian from 1993 to 2002 during which he was the first Dominican to design for a French couture house. In 2006 he branched out and the label expanded int bridal wear.
On Tuesday, Vogue’s editor, Anna Wintour remembered de la Renta by stating, “There is much being said that his passing yesterday marks the end of an era. Not true. He was the most democratic man I knew and he would have lived happily and defined any era. He was happy dining with the rich and famous, for sure, but equally happy playing dominoes with his devoted staff,” Wintour said. “His designs reflected his extraordinary personality: optimistic, fun, sunny, romantic.”
Wintour elaborated on a time over the summer when she spoke with de la Renta at a dinner party, “The conversation became more serious and he told me he felt he had had the most amazing life and he was not afraid. This strength must have been with him in the hospital last week when he made the decision to turn off treatment; it was not the quality of life he wanted.” Wintour had recently visited the designer las weekend with her daughter, Bee Shaffer. “We laughed about Bee’s love life. He gave her advice, and then he said he had a dream to see the allée and pond he had just designed on the grounds. He could no longer move, so we went out and took pictures on his iPad for him to see and ate a chicken sandwich with [his wife] Annette and Janet, his extraordinary nurse,” she wrote. “His last words to me were ‘I love you,’ and I said ‘I love you’ back.”
“Things never happen on accident. They happen because you have a vision… you have a dream.” -Oscar de la Renta
PHOTO CREDIT: MISSINFO.TV