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.
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.
Photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, Vogue, March 2013