Oscar de la Renta

Óscar Arístides Renta Fiallo was born on July 22, 1932, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. At age eighteen, he sailed to Spain to study painting at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. Intrigued by fashion illustration, he secured an apprenticeship with Spain's legendary couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga, whom he credited as his supreme mentor. He subsequently moved to Paris as couture assistant to Antonio del Castillo at Lanvin.

Relocating to New York in 1963, de la Renta first designed for Elizabeth Arden before launching his own eponymous luxury fashion house in 1965. His signature blend of aristocratic European opulence with the bright, lush colors and floral exuberance of his Dominican heritage revolutionized American eveningwear. Over half a century, he served as the undisputed couturier to American First Ladies—dressing Jacqueline Kennedy, Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, and Michelle Obama—as well as royalty and Hollywood stars.

From 1993 to 2002, de la Renta designed the haute couture collection for the historic French fashion house Pierre Balmain, becoming the first Dominican to design for a French couture label. A dedicated philanthropist who built orphanages and schools in the Dominican Republic, de la Renta passed away at his home in Kent, Connecticut, on October 20, 2014, revered as fashion's gentleman titan.