My first memory and perhaps the only vivid one of the Dominican-born designer Oscar de la Renta was of him strutting down a runway with one of his models in tow, dressed in an ornate, sparkly pale pink number on Fashion TV. For long, I had been a hater of pink, sparkly things, but not this one — the dress had me hooked. And so did Oscar de la Renta. I began looking him up on Ask Jeeves (Google wasn’t popular back then) and learnt all that I could learn about him.
For those who cannot recall the designer’s works, he recently designed an ivory beaded-tulle dress for the Lebanese lawyer Amal Alamuddin who wedded George Clooney. But red carpet gowns and wedding dresses weren’t the only specialities of the prolific designer; the 82-year-old dressed everyone from first ladies, to Hollywood starlets. De la Renta’s career, which began in the 1950s, came to an end on Monday; he died due to complications from cancer. His dresses were known for feminine elegance, effervescent colours and exuberant numbers and he was the first American to design a couture collection in Paris since Main Rousseau Bocher.
It took him around 10 years to catapult into stardom and he became prominent after dressing Jacqueline Kennedy and since then, he has dressed almost every First Lady in the U.S.: Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush, and Michelle Obama. Some of his memorable creations include Sarah Jessica Parker’s black-and-white, floor-length gown with the designer’s name on the back in red, Lupita Nyong’o’s strapless polka-dot number, Hillary Clinton’s 1997 swearing-in ensemble in coral, and Laura Bush’s beaded inaugural gown in 2005. For an Indian connection, actress Sridevi picked a black, shiny Oscar de la Renta number for the IIFA awards this year.
In 1963, de la Renta famously said that he just wanted to make beautiful clothes, and I fully agree with him. While I cannot afford an Oscar de la Renta ensemble yet, I plan to pay my tribute to him by pinning one of his iconic designs to my Pinterest board tonight.
(Photos credit: AP)