Oscar de la Renta

Dominican, Fashion New York City, People, Upper East Side / September 30, 2019 by Editors

Oscar de la Renta is the legacy fashion house of the Dominican-American couturier who dressed Jacqueline Kennedy. De La Renta was trained by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Antonio del Castillo.

Fall 2018

Oscar updates Spanish lace for a modern woman.

Fall 2017

Lamé Floral Jacquard Cocktail Dress courtesy of Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta shows its Fall Collection at New York Fashion Week, Monday, February 13 at 6:30pm. You can watch the show live online at www.NYFW.com

Oscar de la Renta is American Elegance

Oscar de la Renta was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic into an elite family of a Dominican mother and a Puerto Rican father. The family’s roots go back to the Spanish Canary Islands off the North African Atlantic coast.

When he was 19 years old, the young de la Renta went to Madrid to study painting. He sketched clothes for pocket money. Francesca Lodge, the wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Spain saw his sketches and commissioned a gown for her daughter. The dress made the cover of Life magazine.

De la Renta took an apprenticeship with Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga. In 1961, De la Renta moved to Paris to work for Spanish costume designer Antonio del Castillo as a couture assistant at Lanvin.

De la Renta gained an international reputation for dressing the first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. De la Renta decided to get into ready-to-wear because there is more money in it. He was working at American fashion house Jane Derby when the designer passed away in 1965. De la Renta took over the label and built it in to Oscar de La Renta, a fashion house that is respected worldwide for its simple elegance.

I never recognized it before, but Oscar de la Renta blends the elegance of his elite upbringing and training with a relaxed Caribbean feeling. He is Spanish, French, Dominican, and Puerto Rican all at once. This understated elegance is what made his work so profound.

One of the great things about Oscar de la Renta is that people respected his work without labeling him Dominican, Puerto Rican, Spanish, or Latino. He’s just a great American. That is something to which we can all aspire.