Country dreams - Oscar de la Renta

It's funny. You might think haute couture isn't relevant to the poor kid in a run-down town or the country girl - who often doesn't bother with make-up as the beings she sees on her thrice-weekly run is more likely to have four legs than two - that is, until someone like Oscar de la Renta passes away.

Shockwaves reverberate wherever and for whomever when a legendary fashion designer is no more.

The first American designer to create haute couture for a Paris fashion house, de la Renta began creating his synonymous collection of breathtakingly beautiful clothes in 1965 having had previously studied under Cristóbal Balenciaga, and worked for Lanvin, Dior and Elizabeth Arden in Paris.

For me, de la Renta fulfilled the dreams of the women he dressed (celebrities dream too, you know) and allowed women the world over to continue to dream. Who could forget the rose pink dress made by de la Renta for Carrie Bradshaw's "Date with the Russian"? The Slavic artist may have given me the heeby jeebies from day one but that dress... sigh.

More recently, Amal's wedding dress?

The stuff that dream are made of. Sentimental? Yes. Unashamedly so.

Of course, the American couturier didn't just do gowns. Pant suits, shift dresses, shirts... everything had de la Renta's signature opulence and grace. The kind of clothes women want to wear to feel, well, womanly.

"Fashion is only fashion once a woman puts it on". True, Oscar but can't beautiful clothing be so much more than 'fashion': a feeling, a dream, an escape, an art....

Whether worn or only seen, Oscar de La Renta's work is sure to be truly appreciated by every urban and rural princess for ever more.

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