Guest Post: Casee Marie Remembers Mr. de la Renta

Hello, fabulous SHE readers. I'm Casee Marie; I write about books at Literary Inklings and occasionally about everything else at The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower. I was deeply grateful when Jenmarie asked me to share a guest post honoring the late Oscar de la Renta. When the two of us were blogging cohorts back in SHE's very early days, we chattered endlessly about Oscar and his magnificent designs. One of my favorite posts that I shared (over three years ago!) was The Elegance of Oscar, which gave me the chance to explore a bit of his career history. I'll always have fond memories of perusing his runway collections with Jenmarie and agreeing that, no matter how crazy Fashion Week got, we could always count on Oscar to share designs that were practical, beautiful, and full of whimsy. We were both heartbroken at the news that he had passed, but he lived a full life and gave us the wonderful gift of his work. It's a pleasure to pay tribute to that today.

How do we begin to chart the trajectory of an icon’s influence? Oscar de la Renta was an extraordinary man, and his passing has left us all recalling the moments when his remarkable work charmed our lives. Whether watching his designs on the runway, emulating the ideals of the Oscar de la Renta world, or learning something new about the life of the man behind the legacy, part of me was always absorbed in one of the many indelible marks Oscar left on the world.

Oscar de la Renta, king of fashion, doyen of elegance, was responsible for some of the most iconic moments in public style history, dressing First Ladies and Hollywood starlets alike. But beyond the flash of cameras there was another allure. Women have always been drawn to certain hallmarks of his work: grace, poise, elegance, and sophistication, to name a few. We’re drawn to this not because Oscar sought to manufacture it for us, but rather because it’s what he celebrated in every woman. He managed to make his work a mirror to reflect those qualities that he so admired in all women; qualities that have always been our birthrights. Grace. Wisdom. Understanding. Confidence. Kindness.

For me, Oscar de la Renta and his work always radiated a certain goodness that wrapped around me like a warm, impossibly chic hug. His work fit into the nooks and crannies of my personality; but his work also resonated with women entirely different from me, which is perhaps what made his designs even more significant. Here was a man who was able to speak on a level of style to a wildly diverse, emotive, and self-expressive gender, and he did so for generations at a time without ever losing relevance. He spoke the language of feminine style, because he understood the limitlessness of the feminine soul. He paid tribute to it with every sketch and every stitch.

As an icon and an individual, Oscar himself was a celebration of the traits he admired in his muse: he was elegant, refined, open, and loving. In many ways, beyond the seams, it was those traits – their timelessness – that cemented his everlasting place as a designer for the ages. He reinvented elegance every season, renewing it in the way he saw it being renewed in every generation, as he watched women continue to grow into their own strengths. With his extraordinary work he reminds us of our own history; and as his timeless legacy endures we’ll always remember what Oscar de la Renta taught us: that grace is power, poise is strength, and kindness is courage.

Rest in peace, Oscar de la Renta
July 22, 1932 - October 20, 2014
Thanks so much to Jenmarie for inviting me to share my thoughts and memories on the wonderful Oscar de la Renta here at SHE. For more on Oscar, the New York Times has a superb interactive timeline that lets you travel through the life of this remarkable man.

xo, Casee Marie

Thank you, Casee Marie, for this beautiful tribute!