Oscar de la Renta, der har brugt et halvt århundrede på at klæde de fine herskaber i haute couture, døde i går, mandag, 82 år gammel.
Den legendariske modedesigner fik konstateret kræft tilbage i 2006, men fortalte sidste år, at han var erklæret rask. Rygterne har dog svirret om Oscar de la Renta og hans helbred, da der forrige uge blev udnævnt ny kreativ direktør i hans firma.
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- Det eneste sikre her i livet er, at vi bliver født, og at vi dør. Vi tror, vi lever evigt, og vi vil aldrig acceptere døden. Det eneste gode ved at få døden ind på livet er, at vi begynder at sætte pris på hver eneste dag i livet, sagde Oscar de la Renta selv i en tale ved New Yorks Fashion Talks sidste år.
Han har klædt alle de amerikanske førstedamer på siden Jacqueline Kennedy og designet brudekjoler til præsidenternes børn - blandt andre Jenna Bush og Chelsea Clinton.
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- Vi vil altid huske ham som ham, der fik kvinder til at se og føle sig smukke, sagde den tidligere førstedame Laura Bush i går aftes i følge CNN.
Photos: People we lost in 2014
2006: Oscar de la Renta on his roots
Oscar de la Renta: Dressing the stars
1997: De la Renta on Clinton's dress
And what a life he lived.
Among those whose glamor factor his dresses jazzed up: Oprah Winfrey, Ann Hathaway and, most recently, George Clooney's bride Amal Alamuddin.
"He was a true, true gentlemen, in the truest sense of the word -- a real bright light -- and this is just a terrible, terrible loss for the fashion world," said Alina Cho, fashion journalist and editor at large at Random House.
Beginnings
Born July 22, 1932, in the Dominican Republic, de la Renta was the only son of seven children.
"My father had different aspirations for me than I had for myself," he told the "Fashion Talks" audience. "If I ever told my father I would become a fashion designer, he would drop dead on the spot."
He has often said the island colored his design sense.
"From my island side comes my love for the exotic, for color and light," he told the New York Times.
At 18, he left for Spain to study at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. For a time, he dabbled in abstract art. But fashion was his passion, he soon discovered.
After the wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Spain saw some of his dress sketches, she commissioned him to design a gown for her daughter.
The daughter and the dress appeared on the cover of Life magazine.
Emboldened, de la Renta switched his focus to fashion.
He landed an apprenticeship with Cristobal Balenciaga, who was at the time Spain's most acclaimed designer. He described that period as the beginning of his learning experience. "I was picking pins off the floor," he joked.