Oscar De La Renta | The New York Observer

Frockin' it Up with Tom Florio: He Does Not Want to Talk About McKinsey

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:50:04 -0400

At Oscar de la Renta's noon show today, attended by designer Zac Posen, photographer Patrick Demarchelier, and Mr. and Mrs. Graydon Carter, the Transom spotted Vogue's publisher, Tom Florio, a few rows behind his editor, Anna Wintour, and her now superstar creative director Grace Coddington. The Transom thought Mr. Florio could use some much-needed attention.

"Hi, Mr. Florio! Can we have a minute of your time for the Observer?" we asked.

He looked up nervously and...

Baba Helps Fashion-Week Friend Avoid Wawa After Oscar de la Renta Show

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:21:44 -0500

Yesterday’s Oscar de la Renta show, at a Christian Science Church on Park Avenue*, took place in a grand, two-story room anchored with White House–esque columns at the front. Mr. de la Renta employed a diverse cast of models, among them a handful of the most prominent African-American up-and-comers (his spring 2009 runway was also less pale than many designers’), and his collection featured belted, first-lady-appropriate day dresses and gowns in lively, contrasting colors....

Fashion Roundup: Vogue Doc Will Address Anna Wintour Retirement Rumors; Designing Dresses for Hillary Clinton; Saks Slashes Jobs

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:20:30 -0500

Many American fashion editors, including Nina Garcia, will not be heading to Paris for haute couture shows this season due to significant budget cuts. [FWD]

Alexander McQueen has teamed up with Puma to design a sports-inspired clothing and accessories line for men and women. [WWD]

According to director R.J. Cutler, his new documentary The September Issue, about Anna Wintour and Vogue, includes "a moment in the film where, what might lead to the end...

Fashion Roundup: Oscar de la Renta's Great Year; Vivienne Westwood Wants More SATC; Madoff Claims Another Fashion Victim

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:51:33 -0500

While some fashion houses have had to trim down their staff and bow out of runway shows, Oscar de la Renta says that his company has had a good year. He's recently been able to hire even more staff and plans to put on two shows during New York Fashion Week--one for press and one for buyers. [FWD]

Celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe was responsible for actresses Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway being dressed up...

Fashion Roundup: The Wealthy Shop in Secret; Versace Exec Sued for Sexual Harassment; Rod Blogojevich's Hair Doesn't Pass Muster

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:23:38 -0500

During "recessionary" times, the rich must do their shopping in private--at hotel suites, private residences, and showrooms; loading hefty bags in the back of their chauffeured cars along Fifth Avenue might come across as vulgar or insensitive. [NY Times]

Hair stylists are outraged over Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich's 'do. “There’s no name for that,” sniffed Calvin Klein’s hairstylist Roberto Novo. “Ugh” [WWD]

Designer Stefano Gabbana, who likes his strawberries red and in the summer...

Anna Wintour's Favorite Dress Reemerges at Fashion Week

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:20:33 -0400

Remember that turquoise Oscar de la Renta dress that Anna Wintour wore to the U.S. Open, and Tommy Hilfiger's engagement party, and the Sex and the City premiere?

Well, it's back! The lovely dress reappeared when Ms. Wintour sat in the front row of the Phillip Lim show on Wednesday and Mr. de la Renta's show right afterwards. And, we must say, the color really does bring out her eyes when they're not shielded...

Anna Wintour's Favorite Dress

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:42:20 -0400

Perhaps Anna Wintour has been so busy organizing fund-raisers that she has sort of dropped the ball on maintaining the image of the fashion editor whose closet is supposed to be the size of France and who would never disappoint her trembling fans by wearing the same dress twice. (At least not in the same country--same rules as cheating on your wife apply.)

But the woman who is...

Moises in the Promised Land

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:09:25 -0400

It was the summer of 1984. A few nuns were strolling the streets of La Romana, a resort town in the Dominican Republic, when they heard a baby’s screams coming from a dumpster. The news soon reached the bronzed ears of the city’s most renowned resident, Oscar de la Renta, who at the time was mourning the death of his first wife.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, Moises Oscar de la Renta, now...

Oscar de la Renta Warms Fall Fashion, Anna Wintour

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:47:10 -0500

It’s springtime for Oscar in autumn! We just came from Oscar de la Renta’s Pre-Fall 2008 show, held in an old church on Park Avenue and 63rd Street. It seems even Old School fashion bigwigs like Mr. De la Renta are starting to acknowledge the fact that balmy temps can, these days, extend well into November.

Sure, there were plenty of black cashmere sweaters, dark brown...

Hey, Hey, It’s the CFDA’s! Oprah … Uma … and Oscar de la Renta!

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 20:16:58 -0400

“When the dress arrived, I said, ‘I’m going to have to name her,’” Oprah Winfrey told the crowd at the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s annual awards at the New York Public Library on Monday, June 4, speaking of the ankle-length pink wrap ball gown that designer Ralph Lauren had created specifically for Ms. Winfrey to present him with the American Fashion Legend Award.

Mr. Lauren also won Menswear Designer of the Year....

Hillary’s Mystery Woman: Who Is Huma?

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 20:00:00 -0400

Last June, under an oppressive sun, at a rally to save the Niagara military base at the University of Buffalo, all of New York’s top politicians—George Pataki, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton—poured sweat.

Yet there was exactly one member of the wilting delegation who managed, somehow, to stay cool: Hillary Clinton’s mysterious, glamorous and eerily unflappable aide de camp, Huma Abedin.

“It was like 110 degrees outside,” recalled the source, a political aide who asked...

George and Hilly

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500

HILLY: Sorry I’m late. DR. SELMAN: Great coat! HILLY: Thanks! GEORGE: So, Dr. Selman, you think I might be bipolar. But I gotta tell you, having tried Wellbutrin—it was only for a week, but I know the effect. Today I was in a funk, couldn’t motivate, paralyzed in front of the computer. And I had just half a hit of Yankee Doodle marijuana, and I was up, ready for action. DR....

George and Hilly

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500

George and Hilly

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500

9/11 5.0: Broken Ground/Portraits of Grief

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:38:14 -0400

Roger Federer & Anna Wintour, Oscar de la Renta, 9/11/06.Photo: Getty...

The Transom

Sun, 14 May 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Bill Clinton, First Laddie “I’m filling in for Hillary,” said Bill Clinton in that breathy Southern drawl, looming close. “She had to vote tonight in Washington.” When Hillary Clinton found out last week that she’d have to bow out as chair of Monday’s Parsons the New School for Design benefit, Oscar de la Renta, the evening’s honoree, arranged for Vogue editor Anna Wintour to present his award. But Senator Clinton said, according to Paul...

Fancy Cardio-Care Finally Comes to N.Y.'s Hospitals

Sun, 07 May 2006 20:00:00 -0400

In a city like New York, where hospital administration often seems like a kind of competitive sport, there is perhaps no such thing as a low-impact hospital ceremony. But the groundbreaking for New York–Presbyterian’s new Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center last Thursday was an eye-popper even by these standards. There were doctors and donors, women in spring bonnets, a white canopied wedding tent and, yes, even a former President.

“I am particularly...

Fancy Cardio-Care Finally Comes to N.Y.’s Hospitals

Sun, 07 May 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Editorials

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Will Bloomberg Buck the G.O.P.?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a way of not making enemies, even among those who disagree with him. That’s one of the reasons Democrats had such a hard time mounting a challenge against him last year. The Republican Mayor was simply too well liked—or, to put it another way, nobody seemed to dislike him with any particular intensity. Safely re-elected with a significant mandate, Mr. Bloomberg apparently is...

Editorials

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Will Bloomberg Buck the G.O.P.? Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a way of not making enemies, even among those who disagree with him. That’s one of the reasons Democrats had such a hard time mounting a challenge against him last year. The Republican Mayor was simply too well liked—or, to put it another way, nobody seemed to dislike him with any particular intensity. Safely re-elected with a significant mandate, Mr. Bloomberg apparently is pondering a...

Today At The Shows: Paris Hilton, Donald Trump, and... Kelly Osbourne?

Mon, 12 Sep 2005 17:45:00 -0400

Out of town? Confined to bedrest? Just plain unwilling to subject yourself to the unholy trinity of Paris Hilton, The Donald, and Kelly Fucking Osbourne? Then let The Transom take you on a visual tour of Bryant Park and today's Fashion Week onslaught. Today, our own intrepid photographer ventured here and there between the "Virgin Vines" event, Oscar de la Renta, the Sony lounge, Charles Nolan, and all about the Tents of Shame. Even the...

Under De La Renta

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 11:49:00 -0400

The stunning Park Avenue co-op apartment underneath fashion icon Oscar de la Renta's apartment is now back on the market. The Observer reported in late March that the 4,600-square-foot residence was under contract. But the pesky co-op board squashed the deal, according to a top Upper East Side source. In the early 1980's, former Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos reportedly desired the co-op's lavish 21-room triplex maisonette before running into difficulties with the board....

Moises' Exodus

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 19:00:00 -0500

"Is that Nell's?" a harried young man asked, standing on the north side of 14th Street near Eighth Avenue and pointing across the street at the awning of NA. Anticipating a fashion show that night, a fair number of low-grade scenesters were milling about in front of the nightclub that had indeed once been Nell's in a former life.

Preceding as it did this season's Fashion Week by at least half a month, the evening's...

Eight Day Week

Sun, 15 Feb 2004 19:00:00 -0500

Wednesday 11th Fashion Week traipses on, leaving every female in its wake feeling bad about her body , except us (honey, an awkward silence would be comfortable in our body). It's been two days since Oscar de la Renta's show, and a week since we ruffled his ruffles by implying that he'd tacked on the "de la" …. So he spontaneously called our office, nearly causing us to choke...

Eight Day Week

Sun, 22 Jul 2001 20:00:00 -0400

Wednesday 18th

More proof that Manhattan-with more than 100 Starbucks, guys with thumb rings, swampy summer sunshine and bottle-blond publicists wielding German S.U.V.'s-is becoming just a more humid version of Los Angeles: This morning, fashion designers Bonnie Cashin, Oscar de la Renta, Giorgio di Sant'Angelo, James Galanos, Charles James, Donna Karan, Anne Klein and Pauline Trigère are inducted into the Fashion Walk of Fame, where their names will be embedded in plaques on Seventh...

Oscar de la Renta, Social Emperor of New York

Sun, 06 Jun 1999 20:00:00 -0400

Sitting at his cream-colored desk inside a halo of luminous office white, Oscar de la Renta held forth at his Seventh Avenue fashion headquarters on a morning in mid-May. As it is the height of the so-called spring season, this is where Mr. de la Renta gathers his strength between the charity fund-raisers and dizzyingly exclusive dinner parties that become almost fate when one is, as the late Slim Keith dubbed the designer, "the...

You Really Like Me! (Or the Coat?)

Sun, 21 Mar 1999 19:00:00 -0500

The red coat entered my closet a few years back. I can't say how it got there or I will lose a relative. The first time I wore it was on New Year's Eve, 1997. People stared at me.

It's floor-length. It's wool. It is very fitted. Wearing it is like walking around with a pretty red blanket wrapped tight around me. It closes to the left side by snaps running all the way up....

`Panic Time!' De la Renta and Company Trot Out Sensible Designs for '99

Sun, 14 Feb 1999 19:00:00 -0500

Oscar de la Renta stood in his Garment District office on Monday, Feb. 8, surveying the pre-fashion-week chaos. A model in an elegant double-faced wool coat with naked legs and Manolo Blahnik heels strutted up to the designer. She stopped and pivoted slightly; a photographer snapped a portrait. Suddenly, the model's face flushed and the room began to fill with giggles. Mr. de la Renta had pinched her ass.

The model struggled to regain her...