Oscar de la Renta (born July 22, 1932) is one of the world's leading fashion designers.
de la Renta was born Oscar Aristides Renta Fiallo in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, to a Dominican mother and a Puerto Rican father. At the age of 18 he left the Dominican Republic to study in Spain, where he studied painting at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. He quickly changed his focus to fashion. While living in Spain, he became interested...
more
Oscar de la Renta (born July 22, 1932) is one of the world's leading fashion designers.
de la Renta was born Oscar Aristides Renta Fiallo in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, to a Dominican mother and a Puerto Rican father. At the age of 18 he left the Dominican Republic to study in Spain, where he studied painting at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. He quickly changed his focus to fashion. While living in Spain, he became interested in the world of design and began sketching for leading Spanish fashion houses, which soon led to an apprenticeship with Spain's most renowned couturier, Cristóbal Balenciaga. Later, de la Renta left Spain to join Antonio Castillo as a couture assistant at Lanvin in Paris.
In 1963, torn between designing custom clothing for Elizabeth Arden, shoes and accessories and designing ready-to-wear for Christian Dior-New York, de la Renta turned for advice to Diana Vreeland, the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, saying that what he really wanted was to "get...
less
