Posted on 10/20/2014 11:07:58 PM PDT by Huntress
Oscar de la Renta, the doyen of American fashion, whose career began in the 1950s in Francos Spain, sprawled across the better living rooms of Paris and New York, and who was the last survivor of that generation of bold, all-seeing tastemakers, died on Monday at his home in Kent, Conn. He was 82.
His death was confirmed by his wife, Annette de la Renta. The cause was complications from cancer. Though ill with cancer intermittently for close to eight years, Mr. de la Renta was resilient. During that period his business grew by 50 percent, to $150 million in sales, as his name became linked to celebrity events like the Oscars. Amy Adams, Sarah Jessica Parker and Penélope Cruz were among the actresses who wore his dresses.
Recently his biggest coup was to make the ivory tulle gown that Amal Alamuddin wore to wed George Clooney in Venice.
Determined to stay relevant, Mr. de la Renta achieved fame in two distinct realms: as a couturier to socialites the so-called ladies-who-lunch, his bread and butter and as a red-carpet king. He also dressed four American first ladies, but it was Hollywood glitz, rather than nice uptown clothes, that defined him for a new age and a new customer. Just as astutely he embraced social media.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A gentlemen and couturier in every respect. He defined high fashion and upper class tastes.
We won’t see his likes again. What he achieved was impressive and that is his true legacy.
Oscar De La Renta will be remembered long after he is gone for making fine clothing design look easy.
Man, this guy made awesome clothes.
My 1st sales job, 1985, I made over $100k.
Bought an Oscar and Burberry suits.
I was styling.
Rest in Peace.
Amazing designer.
noooooooooo :-(
I also had love of my life and bought her a beautiful dress at Miss Jacksons in Tulsa.
She looked stunning.
Its the kind of dress most beautiful women would dream of wearing.
Most of them will have be content with the sight of runway elite supermodels and Hollywood A-listers to the Oscars and Emmys wearing them.
RIP.
de la Renta has more class than Anna Wintour the fashion designer who’s such an Obama drone she won’t design for Republicans
Anna Wintour is an editor - i.e. The Devil Wore Prade - not a designer. Nevertheless, I bet you’re right about her not liking Republicans. She did go to Clooney’s wedding and we know how much he loves the likes of us.
I found a de la Renta suit and tie at a thrift shop many years ago. It was priced the same as all the other suits they had, and it fit. You DO feel like a million bucks in a good suit.
The tie still fits and still looks good, and I’ve kept the suit, just in case it fits again.
I’ve read that de la Renta never designed an outfit for Michelle O...too bad as he could really style a woman and accentuate the beauty
If he had designed a dress for Michelle, she would have ruined it with one of her boob belts.
RIP, Mr. Dr la Renta. May you fashion an outfit for GOD.
I found one of his jackets thrifting a few months ago. Fit well.
The Hugo Boss pants I found once looked really good. Then the seat ripped out getting into a truck.
I couldn’t imagine the pain to my wallet if I’d paid full price for them.
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