“I’m not interested in shock tactics. I just want to make beautiful clothes,” proclaimed Oscar de la Renta at some point down the line of a long and internationally well-received design career. With the Dominican Republic-born couturiers death we lose yet another designer’s designer, the kind trained by both Cristobal Balenciaga and Antonio Castillo, who made beautiful his forte and never once looked back. It’s almost as though the 82-year-old grand gown genius was waiting to see the keys to his revered house go to a worthy successor and then to our delight came the recent announcement that Peter Copping, previously of Nina Ricci, will be filling the much-speculated about position of creative director in November.
This is probably the most moving aspect of the designer’s passing, while fashion may have lost a wise force, one which masterfully took European chic and galvanised the conventions of American dressmaking with just that, it’s nice to know that it came at a time when prospects were looking up for his brand. A lifetime spent crafting grown-up clothing for his sophisticated and ultra-feminine ideal of a woman is no mean feat and for that we salute the man described as the “sultan of suave”.
Especially seeing as that ideal is one his high-profile clientèle still epitomise to this day, ever since one of his earliest clients, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis put his iconic name of the fashion map. De la Renta is a name that will now go down in history along with his enlightening comments; comments that we could all certainly learn a thing or two from, so when it comes to the morals of everyday dress for instance just remember what Oscar imparted upon fashion, “It’s a discipline. And if you don’t dress well every day, you lose the habit. It’s not about what you wear, but how you live your life”.
by Liam Feltham
Images courtesy of Style.com