Fashion icon de la Renta dead at 82
Oscar de la Renta, the doyen of American fashion, whose career began in the 1950s in Franco’s Spain and 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.
Though ill with cancer intermittently for a decade, Mr. de la Renta was resilient. During that period, his business grew by 50%, to US$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 stars 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 last month.
Determined to stay relevant, Mr. de la Renta achieved fame in two distinct realms: as a couturier to rich 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.
Born the only son of seven children to a middle-class family in the Dominican Republic in 1932, Mr. de la Renta left home at 18 to study art in Madrid. There he developed a love of fashion design and began an apprenticeship with Cristóbal Balenciaga, who became his mentor. His first fashion job was with Lanvin in Paris.
He became a household name in the early 1960s when first lady Jaqueline Kennedy wore his designs. He launched his ready-to-wear label in 1965 in New York.
First lady Nancy Reagan frequently wore his dresses and he designed the gowns for inaugural events for Hillary Clinton in 1997 and Laura Bush in 2005.
Michelle Obama appeared in one of his dresses this month. A week ago, the de la Renta design house announced that Peter Copping would take over as creative director.
Mr. de la Renta was married twice. First wife Francoise de Langlade, died in 1983, of bone cancer. In 1989 he married his current wife, the socialite Annette Engelhard Reed, 74.