Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta was born in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic in 1932 and left for Madrid at eighteen to study painting at the Academia de San Fernando. His fashion career began when Cristóbal Balenciaga was shown some of his illustrations, leading to an apprenticeship at Balenciaga's Madrid atelier. His work became closely associated with American elegance: vibrant colours, flower prints, ruffles and embellishment worn by the women of New York society, American first ladies and, later, red-carpet celebrities, among whom are Jacqueline Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Amal Clooney. In November 1973 he was one of five American designers (Halston, Bill Blass, Anne Klein and Stephen Burrows) who faced five French couturiers (Yves Saint Laurent, Emanuel Ungaro, Pierre Cardin, Marc Bohan for Dior and Hubert de Givenchy) at the Battle of Versailles, a charity fashion show staged in the Royal Opera of the Palace of Versailles. The Americans were widely considered to have won. He died in October 2014. The house has since been led by Peter Copping, then Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, who departed in 2026.