Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta had a tremendous impact on the fashion world. Almost every single celebrity wore his gowns and designs. His entrance into the fashion world was credited to his wife, Francoise de Langlade, the editor-in-chief of French Vogue. She introduced him to many members of the fashion society. His debut was a perfume in 1977 called, OSCAR. His fashion pieces started becoming a lot more popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s: by that time his designs were known as the preferred wear of the first ladies of America.

By 2002, he added his name to a line of furniture, he had near 100 pieces of furniture for Century Furniture featuring dining tables, chairs and couches. In 2004 he added a much less expensive line of clothing to his name called O Oscar. He claimed that he wanted to intrigue new customers who could not afford his other lines.

Sarah Jessica Parker came to Oscar de la Renta around May 2014 to propose a dress design to him. She wanted a somewhat simple dress but with a bit of a twist to it. She wanted him to embroider his name on the train of the dress in scarlet. She was so certain he would have said no, but it came as a surprise to her that he said yes. He was all for designing the dress even when they knew they would get bad publicity for it. The last dress he created was worn by the new wife of George Clooney, Amal Clooney. George and Amal Clooney wanted the dress to be described as romantic and elegant. They couldn’t think of anyone other than de la Renta to design the dress.

Oscar de la Renta died on Oct. 20, 2014.