Fri, 18 Sep 2009 9:42a.m.
Fashion statesman, Oscar de la Renta, presented his spring collection at a former church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, far from the teeming crowds at the Bryant Park tents.
The collection included pieces with the elaborate beadwork and embroidery that are the designer's hallmark, but included more casual pieces - relatively speaking. The designer also seemed to draw inspiration from the world map - Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, among other exotic locales.
There were beautiful dresses which are de rigueur for the Dominican Republic-born de la Renta - taffeta and organza gowns in bright fuchsia and red as well as a black lace-and-organza ruffled and embellished ones, but also a cropped denim jacket worn over a black dress with purple and teal embroidery. Safari jackets were paired with skinny silk-faille pants, and a pair of linen gaucho pants was worn with a white cotton blouse and a bronze tweed jacket.
The designer told AP that he meant to offer options, "It's about trying to, you know, offer a tremendous amount of diversification in the collection, not only in the fluidity of the clothes and the lengths of the clothes and the variety on the clothes, but it is that if I will ask you what it is you are wearing, you'll answer, 'my dress, my own,' because it's the way you put it together. It's what you do with it, you know. That's what's important. It's no longer, 'oh my goodness, I'm dressed by so-and-so.' No, it's no longer that. It's yourself. And I think that these are the clothes that you have to design now. The women can then manipulate them, do her own things, you know."
Asked if his task gets easier or harder as the years go by, Mr. de la Renta laughed good-naturedly and said it gets harder.
"It gets much harder every year. It gets harder because first of all as you get older, you say, 'gee, am I doing the right thing?' People say, 'it must be a cinch for you now, you're doing so many collections.' Not at all."
He keeps at it however because he says he is optimistic and because "I'm never bored."
APTN