Oscar de la Renta

De la Renta was born Óscar Arístides Renta Fiallo in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He was raised by his father, insurance company entrepreneur Óscar Avelino Renta, and mother Carmen María Antonia Fiallo, descendent of a long line of Dominican society types, alongside his six sisters. Hailing from a family of successful scholars, political figures, doctors, businessmen, military officials, writers, and national celebrities, de la Renta discovered an interest in the arts in childhood. At age 19, shortly after the passing of his mother, de la Renta opted to pursue an academic career in painting, leaving home for the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. Word spread quickly about de la Renta's talent during his tenure at the academy. Supporting his studies with illustration jobs, he won the attention of his first high profile client: Francesca Lodge (Italian dancer and wife of Governor, U.S. Ambassador, and part-time actor John Davis Lodge), whose first commission of a young de la Renta would land his work on the cover of Life magazine in the fall of 1956. Shortly after, de la Renta-who had secured steady design work with fashion houses throughout Spain-landed a union with one Cristóbal Balenciaga, a veritable god in the world of European fashion. Although de la Renta had secured an apprenticeship under Spain's leading fashion industry figure, the young artist was eager to find out just how far his gifts would take him. In 1961, despite the Balenciaga's suggestions that de la Renta was not yet ready for the move, the then 28-year-old illustrator relocated to Paris in search of new opportunity, landing job offers at fashion companies Christian Dior and Lavin within days of one another, ultimately opting for a job at the latter, working directly beneath Antonio del Castillo. De la Renta would leap to and from various big name fashion houses throughout the course of the decade, heading to America for a job with Elizabeth Arden in 1963, followed by a partnership at Jane Derby two years later. In fact, de la Renta came to inherit the New York-based company from Derby herself following her death, rebranding it in his own name and beginning then to institute his influence in earnest. In '67, de la Renta married his first wife, Françoise de Langlade: French fashion journalist who had served as editor of Harpers Bazaar and the Condé Nast subsidiary Vogue Paris. From the '70s on, de la Renta's artistic vision became practically ubiquitous. The rising mogul served two nonconsecutive stints as the Council of Fashion Designers of America President, developed his own eponymous fragrance, launched a line of boutiques, and began designing outfits for the First Ladies of the United States of America. De la Renta formed substantial professional and personal relationships with Nancy Reagan and Hillary Clinton.De la Renta suffered hardship when his wife de Langlade died in 1983, succumbing to bone cancer. It seems to have been this tragedy that moved him to adopt a Dominican orphan as his own son, naming him Moises de la Renta. In 1989, de la Renta found a second wife in philanthropist and fashion figure Annette Engelhard, formerly Anne France Mannheimer. Fashion maintained its stronghold on de la Renta's life and ideology throughout the '90s and 2000s. He'd develop new collections, earn countless accolades, and contribute to a series of charities and causes, including the construction of schools and orphanages in the Dominican Republic. De la Renta's work on behalf of the country was so formidable that he was even named Ambassador-at-Large of the Caribbean nation. Additionally, he served on the boards of artistic and scholarly institutions such as the Metropolitan Opera House, Carnegie Hall, and PBS. In 2006, de la Renta was diagnosed with cancer. He remained an active and vocal member of the fashion industry throughout the years to follow. On October 20, 2014, he died in his home in Kent, Connecticut, at the age of 82.