Oscar de la Renta
(1932 - )
Oscar de la Renta was born in “Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on July 22, 1932. He studied art at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain. His career in fashion began sketching for Eisa, Balenciaga’s Madrid couture house.
He moved to Paris in 1961 and worked as an assistant to Antonio De Castillo at Lanvin-Castillo. In 1963, at the age of 30 he moved to New York and worked for Elizabeth Arden, and as a partner with Jane Derby, Inc. in 1965; that same year when Derby retired, de la Renta opened his own business. In 1967 he married Francoise de Langlade, editor-in-chief of French Vogue.
In the 1960s, he designed jackets and coats of bandanna-printed denim, embroidered hot pats under silk mini-dresses or caftans made out of silk chiffon and psychedelic silk saris. He was largely responsible for initiating the ethnic fashion of the 1970s inspired by the hippie movement and its embracement of other cultures such as fashions of the belle epoque, abstract art prints, evening clothes inspired by the orient, and exotic flamenco dresses. Through the years, de la Renta has established himself as a couture and ready-to-wear designer of vibrant dresses, coats, suits and daywear, created with a bold yet subdued use of color.
De la Renta introduced his signature perfume Oscar in 1977, for which he received the Fragrance Foundation Perennial Success Award in 1991. In 1983 he launched his second fragrance “Ruffles.” De la Renta was twice a winner of the Coty American Fashion Critic’s Award, in 1967 and 1973. He was inducted into the Coty Hall of Fame in 1973 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1990.
In 1992 he was hired as creative director for the couture house Pierre Balmain, position he held for ten years. International acknowledgment came with his appointment as a designer this French couture house; the first American designer to be recognized in this way.
De la Renta received the Womenswear Designer of the Year Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2000, the honor that succeeded the Coty Awards. In 2001 the designer was elected to the fashion walk of fame and honored with a commemorative plaque embedded into the sidewalk of New York’s Seventh Avenue.
One of fashion histories most celebrated designers, De la Renta continues to be an influential force in American fashion sophistication.
