Oscar de la Renta, dressmaker to US first ladies, dies at 82

Oscar de la Renta who died on Monday at the age of 82. The legendary US designer dressed Hollywood stars, socialites and first ladies during his famous career.

DPA/New York

US fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, who made dresses for Jackie Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, died aged 82, US news reports said yesterday.

He died at home in Connecticut on Monday, reports quoted family and friends as saying. The cause of death was not reported, but de la Renta was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.

The designer was born in the Dominican Republic in 1932, where his father wanted him to go into the family insurance business.

“But I could not see myself selling insurance,” he said at a cultural event in New York in 2012. So he left aged 18 for Madrid, “first to study art,” he said.

“If I had told my father I wanted to be a fashion designer, he would have killed me on the spot.”

He later took up an apprenticeship with a Spanish clothing designer, before moving to Paris and then New York.

De la Renta made his name designing several dresses in the 1960s for then first lady Jackie Kennedy, and launched his own label. Nancy Reagon, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton have all worn his designs, as has the current first lady Michelle Obama.

Other celebrities to favour his work include Oprah Winfrey, and actresses Penelope Cruz and Sarah Jessica Parker.

One of his last creations was the dress worn by human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin when she married Hollywood actor George Clooney last month.

He married twice, but never had children of his own.