He was the son of globalization—born in the Dominican Republic to a mother of
Spanish descent and a father hailing from Puerto Rico, beginning a storied
career in French couture before launching in America. His was a family of
intellectuals and civil servants. He dabbled in painting before diving into the
cutthroat world of fashion design. He played bridge with investor whiz Warren
Buffett and once nearly got in a fistfight with journalist William Norwich.
He was a true American pioneer.
With the death of Oscar de la Renta on Monday night at the age of 82, the
fashion world has lost not only a brilliantly talented artist, but also arguably
the very first American designer with street cred on the world’s runways.
That his designs clothed American celebrities and the elite for decades is
but one component of de la Renta’s contribution to American fashion. De la Renta
began his career with Arden, working in the burgeoning ready-to-wear business.
Within a few years, de la Renta had worked his way up to launching his very own
label.
(Picture:bridesmaid
dresses)
“I have a creative block on a daily basis,” he said in an interview with
Norwich for New York magazine’s The Cut. “To be a good designer, you have to
keep your eyes open. You have to understand the consumer. You have to understand
the woman you are dressing.”
Once he’d scored a label, de la Renta’s rise was meteoric. He splashed onto
the political scene with the silk boatneck dresses favored by then-First Lady
Jacqueline Kennedy. Though Kennedy was often remembered as a fashion
trailblazer, de la Renta’s role in creating her image—and that of American women
in the swingin’ ‘60s—should not be ignored. The fitted bodices splaying out into
full skirts kicked off a decade of iconoclastic rebellion in fashion while
preserving a unique sense of American tradition within folds of taffeta.
“I always say in my role as a designer is to bear, to do the very best I can
for that woman, to make her feel her very best,” de la Renta said in a 2013
video shot for the William J. Clinton Presidential Center’s celebration of him,
“Oscar de la Renta: American Icon.”
And make many a woman feel her very best he did. From first ladies since
Kennedy through Obama, Hollywood starlets, and urban sophisticates, de la Renta
clothed women over half a century, focusing on the intersection of simplicity in
form and breathtaking complexity in design to create pieces that were inimitably
de la Renta, undeniably American.
Before de la Renta’s entrance, American fashion was ruled by copycats: Runway
looks from Paris and London were adjusted for American tastes, which strayed
towards the practical and avoided the cutting-edge risks that defined the
European scene. De la Renta changed that—he focused on the American woman, her
needs, her cultural outlook, her sense of practicality but desire to be
beautiful. De la Renta combined these sensibilities into what became his
unmistakable brand of strong lines, very little skin-show, sumptuous fabrics,
vibrant single hues, ornate details like lace and bows and pearls that evoked a
purity that was at once sultry and innocent, and, most importantly, a tag
bearing his calligraphic name, scrolled in smooth strokes both delightfully
unexpected and surprisingly expected, just like his line. Read more:http://www.queeniebridesmaid.co.uk/purple-bridesmaid-dresses-uk
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