Remembering Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta was a great man, and a great American designer. Over five decades he made fashion that was elegant, based on the tools of the trade that he learned in Spain at Balenciaga, and in Paris, at Lanvin under Antonio Castillo. I also considered him one of my close, best friends. He truly cared about my well-being, regardless of whether or not it was my weight-loss battle, or was I lonely, and would I come dine with he and Annette at home in New York. I spent Thanksgiving with him, about eight or nine years ago, just the three of us and his son Moises in Kent, Connecticut. Family was of the utmost importance to him. The wedding he and his wife created for stepdaughter Eliza Reed Bolen’s nuptials, was one of the most beautiful and original country weddings I ever attended. And the social world was there in full force.

Oscar was king of the historical social anecdote, no matter if it was about the Marquis de Cuevas’s famous costume ball, or Marie-Hélène de Rothschild’s dinners. He lived through his youth, following the great bullfighters of Spain, when he worked in Madrid, he honed his design DNA in Paris and with his great success in New York, he always gave back, philanthropically. He personally supported an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. This was one of his passions—he provided housing, food, education, and hope for those beautiful children.

I met Oscar de la Renta, in 1974, when I arrived in New York. He was then wed to his first wife, Françoise de Langlade, a former French Vogue editor-in-chief. Oscar and Françoise took me under their wings and mentored me socially.

Every single morning, Françoise would call me once I got to my desk at Women’s Wear Daily down on Twelfth Street. It was an open floor plan then, and my desk was no more than ten steps from John Fairchild’s desk with a low bookcase separating us. I was an accessories editor, and at night, a beat reporter. This is where I learned my craft as a social chronicler. Françoise would often call me up and ask me where I had been and what I had done the night before.

Oscar and his wife were the first to invite me to dinner in their home, with the likes of Dr. Henry Kissinger, or Tatiana and Alexander Liberman; they also invited me to dinner when they were in Paris, with their friends, like Cristiana Brandolini d’Adda and the late Andre Olivier.

One day, Françoise called me and said I had messed up socially, I had forgotten to come to lunch with just she and Annette Reed, now Mrs. de la Renta. In those days—the seventies—Oscar and Françoise were the Social Lions of New York. They served the best food and made dinner at home a vast, rich experience of color and textures with wine and decor. In the new book, Valentino: At the Emperor’s Table, Valentino specifically wanted me to write in the introduction how Oscar and his wife were the best and most outstanding New York host and hostess.

His impeccable personal style with people, parties, and fashion fueled his work. Known for his appropriate elegance, he always designed with the ultimate motivation that women must look and feel beautiful. Having worked beside him on so many of his Balmain haute couture collections for nearly a decade as a stylist, I watch him return again and again to his roots, the highest standards of French couture, having first apprenticed with Cristóbal Balenciaga in Madrid, and then working as designer at Castillo-Lanvin. There was always a sense of the flourish of a great flamenco flounce in his dinner and evening dresses, the bias elegance of silk charmeuse in slim sheath dresses, and simple black or white cashmere coats, that his wife Annette loved. In the winter, she often wears one of his cashmere coats to dinner and never removes it, she loves them so.

In 2013, Oscar asked me to help him with an exhibit that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton organized on First Lady style at the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. We all flew down to the presidential library and the show was full of exquisite, elegant de la Renta clothes worn by former First Ladies from Nancy Reagan to Laura Bush.  

As evidenced in his last great wedding dress, which he designed for Mrs. George Clooney, Oscar was also a master of the grand wedding gown. My favorite, of course, was the dress and veil he designed for Elizabeth Shaffer, who got married last summer. Oscar and Annette took a helicopter and flew down from Connecticut to Long Island so that he could make the final adjustments just before she walked down the aisle.

Some of my fondest memories of Oscar are in his native Dominican Republic, diving into a natural waterfall in the mountains, or having the ultimate pleasure of seeing him dance. He was the best dancer. It was a joy just to be in his presence, especially in his beautiful homes and gardens, where happiness reigned.

Click through the slideshow below for Oscar de la Renta’s best moments in Vogue.

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Photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, Vogue, March 2013