Remembering Oscar de la Renta
Corbis
The fashion community has lost one of its greatest talents, but for me I lost somebody who has inspired me and made me believe what my industry can really be about. Oscar de la Renta has passed away at the age of 82 and in my more than 20 years in the business I can say that he will be truly missed. Ever since one of my early jobs working at Women’s Wear Daily as a newbie, I would recall the designer being so gracious and educating, as he would invite my colleagues and I up for a preview to review his inspiration boards and share in the stories of his creative mind. Seeing that recent picture of the beautiful gown he created for Amal Alamuddin’s wedding to George Clooney in Vogue, it reminded me that every time I worked with him it has been both a personal and rewarding experience.
De la Renta, who first rose to fame in the U.S. for dressing First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, was known for injecting uptown elegance in every piece he designed from a tailored suit to a flowing evening gown. His creations were, for me, the absolute personification of American sophistication, especially for someone like myself, who rose through the ranks of this industry learning the subtlety of style from a man like Mr. de la Renta. He was always "Mr. de la Renta" to me, and not because he demanded that formality but because he was so regal in the way he approached fashion. I couldn't imagine him being anything less than that but at the same time he had such a great sense of humor and was always laughing every single time we worked together. When we did work, it was always fun and easy, whether it was our special projects for designing one-of-a-kind gowns for Sarah Jessica Parker’s fragrance campaign or a picture I styled of him with Jennifer Lopez in Spanish Harlem.
While his fashions will go down in history — his looks always appear on the top of best-dressed lists and already live in museums around the world — it’s the great man that I’ll remember. At the beginning of the 2000's when I was at W magazine, we traveled to the Dominican Republic, de la Renta’s home country, for a large production photo shoot with Bruce Weber and Mr. de la Renta was the defacto mayor treating everyone from the photo assistants to the Clintons as equals. To him, they all held the same importance and that was his magic. Years later, we would return to Punta Cana for another shoot for ELLE, and when he hosted my new crew, it was no different. It wasn’t work and he wasn’t a designer - just a kind, generous man. He had an incredibly big heart and was a creative, warm, human being.
His outlook on life is one to live by. “Yes, I had cancer. Right now, I am totally clean. The only realities in life are that you are born, and that you die. We always think we are going to live forever,” he said at at Council of Fashion Designers of America last year. “The dying aspect we will never accept. The one thing about having this kind of warning is how you appreciate every single day of life.”
