A Tribute to Fashion Industry Icon Oscar de la Renta

By Kristen Peuvion on October 23, 2014

Just this week, on Monday night, the fashion world lost one of its greatest designers, Oscar de la Renta, at the age of 82.

He was arguably one of the world’s most successful designers and his name is sure to live on for decades to come. As a tribute to this designer legend, let’s take a look at his early life, his career and some of his most impressive gowns throughout the years.

Born in 1932 in the Dominican Republic, de la Renta was the youngest of seven children and the only boy in a middle class family. Despite his average upbringing, however, this designer’s life was far from ordinary.

At the age of 19, according to biography.com, he left the Caribbean and went to Spain to study painting at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. It was there that he first discovered his love and passion for the fashion world.

Because of his impressive artistry skills, people in the industry took notice. Oscar de la Renta’s first big break was an apprenticeship with Cristobal Balenciaga, another one of the fashion industry’s greatest.

After that, de la Renta went to Paris to work in his first fashion job at Lanvin-Castillo. A mere two years later, he went to work for the design house of Elizabeth Arden in New York City. Then, two years after that, he first created his ready to wear line.

Success came quickly to de la Renta, which considering his talent, should come as no surprise. Aside from his signature ready to wear line, throughout his years as a designer, he ventured into furniture, homewear, fragrance and accessories, among other projects, all of which proved successful for the designer.

Despite all of these other ventures, his signature ready to wear line was without a doubt his most successful and the world took notice. Known for its feminine silhouettes, this ready to wear line was worn with pride by many elite women.

De la Renta’s clothing became synonymous with beautiful silk prints, ruffles and gorgeous colors, and notably famous women took notice. In his career, he dressed four of the country’s first ladies, most notably Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and countless Hollywood celebrities.

Some of Oscar de la Renta’s most famous looks include this red ruffled gown that Beyoncé wore in the March 2013 issue of Vogue magazine. This gown features the ruffles that de la Renta became notorious for.

image via vogue.com

Perhaps one of Oscar’s last pieces was this gorgeous lace overlay wedding gown designed for Amal Alamuddin Clooney, George Clooney’s new wife. She wore this dress just under a month ago at her Sept. 27 wedding.

image via dailymail.co.uk

De la Renta was famous for dressing first ladies. Here are two gowns he designed for Laura Bush in 2005 and Hillary Clinton in 1997. He also designed Jenna Bush’s wedding dress.

image via dailymail.co.uk

Here, Jennifer Lawrence wears one of de la Renta’s less formal dresses. While not as formal as his red carpet gowns, this dress is still just as beautiful, feminine and flattering as his fancier gowns.

image via dailymail.co.uk

Both Jessica Chastain and Taylor Swift’s gowns show us another signature design element of Oscar de la Renta: his attention to detail. The ornate beading on both of these dresses is absolutely breathtaking.

image via dailymail.co.uk

Oscar de la Renta’s interests didn’t lie solely in fashion, though. Because he started as an art student, his interests have always been in the arts. During his career, in between designing gorgeous gown after gorgeous gown, he found time to serve on the boards of several institutions and supported countless cultural groups.

Some of these boards and cultural groups included The Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, New Yorkers for Children, the Americas Society and the Spanish Institute. Fashion was obviously his talent and passion, but his passion for these institutions and groups was a huge part of his life as well.

And the world didn’t just love this man simply for his fashion talents. In an industry known for people being cutthroat, cold and calculating, de la Renta was a much needed break from all of that.

Nearly every news story and article reporting the news of the legendary designer’s death has discussed how warm, genuine and generous this man was, which we can see from his involvement in all of those organizations. He was not only talented, but a beautiful man inside and out.

Barbara Bush, one of the first ladies that had the pleasure of wearing de la Renta’s designs and working with him, reiterated what everyone else who had the opportunity to work with him said, in a statement on CBS: “We will miss Oscar’s generous and warm personality, his charm, and his wonderful talents.”

It is obvious that this man left behind quite the legacy. He may be best known for his fashion design talents, but he has undoubtedly left a mark on this world because of his kind and generous spirit as well. Oscar de la Renta will be greatly missed by all.

Oscar de la Renta 1932-2014

image via missinfo.tv

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