Oscar de la Renta, born in 1932 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, was a prominent fashion designer celebrated for his elegant and sophisticated designs. His career took off in the 1950s, working in Spain and later Paris with renowned designers like Balenciaga. In the 1960s, he settled in New York and gained global recognition for his work with Elizabeth Arden. De la Renta’s designs, known for their timeless elegance and luxurious fabrics, became favorites among celebrities and First Ladies, including Jacqueline Kennedy and Michelle Obama. His brand encompasses ready-to-wear, haute couture, bridal wear, and fragrances. Oscar de la Renta passed away in 2014, leaving behind a lasting legacy of excellence in the fashion industry.
Oscar De La Renta Quotes
1. “Be the designer of your own destiny.”
— Oscar de la Renta
2. “Every day you have to reinvent yourself.”
— Oscar de la Renta
3. “Luxury to me is not about buying expensive things; it’s about living in a way where you appreciate things.”
— Oscar de la Renta
4. “My great strength is knowing who I am and where I come from – my island.”
— Oscar de la Renta
5. “Things never happen on accident. They happen because you have a vision, you have a commitment, you have a dream.”
— Oscar de la Renta
6. “Walk like you have three men walking behind you.”
— Oscar de la Renta
7. “You have to appreciate every single day that you’re alive. Life is a little bit like a garden – you have to find time to plant the seeds for beautiful flowers to grow.”
— Oscar de la Renta
8. “Style begins by looking good naked. It’s a discipline. And if you don’t dress well every day, you lose the habit. It’s not about what you wear, but about how you live your life.”
— Oscar de la Renta
9. “Elegance is a discipline of life.”
— Oscar de la Renta
10. “Style begins by looking good naked.”
— Oscar de la Renta
11. “Silk does for the body what diamonds do for the hand.”
— Oscar de la Renta
12. “Fashion is a trend, style is within a person.”
— Oscar de la Renta
13. “The essence of style is how you live your life.”
— Oscar de la Renta
14. “The well dressed man never stands out in a crowd; his elegance sets him apart.”
— Oscar de la Renta
15. “A fragrance is like a signature, so that even after a woman leaves the room, her fragrance should reveal she’s been there.”
— Oscar de la Renta
16. “Accept your friends for who they are, not for who you want them to be.”
— Oscar de la Renta
17. “If you don’t move, you get stale.”
— Oscar de la Renta
18. “Love. Be curious. Always try to do your best.”
— Oscar de la Renta
19. “The qualities I most admire in women are confidence and kindness.”
— Oscar de la Renta
20. “A woman makes an outfit her own with accessories.”
— Oscar de la Renta
21. “Fashion is about dressing according to what’s fashionable. Style is more about being yourself.”
— Oscar de la Renta
22. “My job as a designer is to make a woman feel her very best.”
— Oscar de la Renta
23. “Gardening is how I relax. It’s another form of creating and playing with colors.”
— Oscar de la Renta
24. “You don’t need an introduction to succeed in life. You need to have good work. Work hard. Believe in yourself.”
— Oscar de la Renta
25. “I always say: To be well dressed you must be well naked.”
— Oscar de la Renta
26. “And smile, you know I always tell the girls to smile because I hate sad faces.”
— Oscar de la Renta
27. “I love to live well, I love to eat well, I love to buy beautiful things, and to give a fantastic time to my friends.”
— Oscar de la Renta
28. “The most important thing? Perfect lighting at all times.”
— Oscar de la Renta
29. “I was surrounded by sisters. My childhood was all women.”
— Oscar de la Renta
30. “Excess is not really something I consider a bad thing; especially when you are talking about living.”
— Oscar de la Renta
31. “The charities closest to my heart have always involved helping children in some way.”
— Oscar de la Renta
33. “In fashion, the most important thing is to move on.”
— Oscar de la Renta
34. “I do not have one theme for each season, I just try to make beautiful clothes all year round.”
— Oscar de la Renta
35. “The great thing about fashion is that it always looks forward.”
— Oscar de la Renta
36. “Women think black is the most flattering color, but they’re wrong. Pink adds a cosmetic-like radiance and warmth. Black drains the skin of color; pink delights the eye.”
— Oscar de la Renta
37. “It’s not about what you wear, but about how you live your life.”
— Oscar de la Renta
38. “The only realities in life are that you are born, and that you die. We always think we are going to live forever. The dying aspect we will never accept. The one thing about having this kind of warning is how you appreciate every single day of life.”
— Oscar de la Renta
39. “I like light, color, luminosity. I like things full of color and vibrant.”
— Oscar de la Renta
40. “Work hard. Believe in yourself. It’s not the publicity that sells the clothes, it’s the woman.”
— Oscar de la Renta
41. “I hate pretty. It’s a very empty word. It gives a bad name to beauty.”
— Oscar de la Renta
42. “If you wear a different perfume every day, I do not recognize you.”
— Oscar de la Renta
43. “When I was a boy, I thought scent was contained in dewdrops on flowers and if I got up very early in the morning, I could collect it and make perfume.”
— Oscar de la Renta
44. “The most important beauty is not that with which you were born, but the beauty of character which grows through a woman’s life and maybe never stops growing.”
— Oscar de la Renta
45. “I always think the best way to dress is when the person notices you first and the dress after.”
— Oscar de la Renta
46. “My customers are successful working women.”
— Oscar de la Renta
47. “A runway is spectacle. It’s only fashion when a woman puts it on.”
— Oscar de la Renta
48. “Working for incredible talents like Balenciaga and Antonio Castillo, I learned about the immense skill and creativity involved in couture work.”
— Oscar de la Renta
49. “Any girl from any walk of life dreams of that special dress, and I try to make that dream a reality for her.”
— Oscar de la Renta
50. “A woman can wear anything- she can make it right.”
— Oscar de la Renta
51. “When I went to see Mrs. Clinton and we talk about the inaugural dress I ask her what would you like to achieve with this particular dress? And she said to me what I would like is – that when I walk into the room and people will look at me and say wow you look great.”
— Oscar de la Renta
52. “I come from a very warm island, where colors are very important, very vibrant, and obviously the color has been an influence on my work.”
— Oscar de la Renta
53. “I’ve lived every day to the fullest, and I’ve had a marvelous time. I’ve tried to be nice to the people I care about, and ignore the ones I don’t. I enjoy what I’ve done.”
— Oscar de la Renta
54. “If you have the right to call me a hot dog why do I not have the right to call you a stale 3-day old hamburger?”
— Oscar de la Renta
55. “Women are born free, and I think that they should stay that way.”
— Oscar de la Renta
56. “The Council of Fashion Designers of America is a national neurotic society of creative leaders in various fields of fashion.”
— Oscar de la Renta
57. “My wife said I look like a Latin American dictator. I said, ‘That’s what I am’”
— Oscar de la Renta
58. “A woman plays such an active role in society. And today, the woman who influences fashion is not that very rich woman who sits at home and polishes her nails. It’s the one who works, who is a doer, who does things by dressing. She’s very strongly projecting an image of herself as an individual.”
— Oscar de la Renta
59. “I adore gardening, and whenever I have time off, that is my passion.”
— Oscar de la Renta
60. “There is no sound more feminine than a woman in a taffeta dress.”
— Oscar de la Renta
61. “There is always an emotional element to anything that you make.”
— Oscar de la Renta
62. “We live in an era of globalization and the era of the woman. Never in the history of the world have women been more in control of their destiny.”
— Oscar de la Renta
63. “What women have achieved in the last 50 years, I wish men would have achieved in the last 100.”
— Oscar de la Renta
64. “Nothing says spring like hand-cut flowers.”
— Oscar de la Renta
65. “My entire concept of lifestyle is built on the foundation of my homes. There is no more important expression of this concept than that of my own personal living space.”
— Oscar de la Renta
66. “I think the greatest reward I have is getting up and going to work each day. I love what I do.”
— Oscar de la Renta
67. “When a woman falls in love with something so much that she wants to wear it- it is at that point that it becomes fashion.”
— Oscar de la Renta
68. “Fashion is about the present and the immediate future. I think in terms of now.”
— Oscar de la Renta
69. “Nothing is contrived. At night, the clothes should pour like liquid over the body.”
— Oscar de la Renta
70. “I’m a very restless person. I’m always doing something. The creative process never stops.”
— Oscar de la Renta
71. “I want to make clothes that people will wear, not styles that will make a big splash on the runway.”
— Oscar de la Renta
72. “Fashions change and with rare exception are forgotten by the public. But the classic fragrances, like an invisible dress, endure. Fragrance must be introduced properly. A fragrance is like a signature, so that even after a woman leaves the room, her fragrance should reveal she’s been there.”
— Oscar de la Renta
73. “Regardless of how good or bad a collection might be, it’s a letdown after the show is over. It’s done. Something you’ve worked on for months is just over.”
— Oscar de la Renta
74. “We’re dealing with sophisticated customers. What’s most important to these women is individuality. I have to create things she’ll want to wear, no matter who she is.”
— Oscar de la Renta
75. “One should travel as light as possible. I can organize myself to go on a ten-day trip with just hand luggage.”
— Oscar de la Renta
76. “I have always felt my role as a designer is to do the very best I can for a woman to make her look her best. Fashion is only fashion once a woman puts it on.”
— Oscar de la Renta
77. “I don’t really know how to do casual clothes.”
— Oscar de la Renta
78. “I am not interested in shock tactics. I just want to make beautiful clothes.”
— Oscar de la Renta
79. “You know I started an orphanage so totally by accident. A lady came to me and asked me if I would, I will help her and we start it with little school and then I fell in love with it.”
— Oscar de la Renta
80. “It’s important to excite the imagination of a woman.”
— Oscar de la Renta
81. “I would like better to be known as the Godfather of Fashion, with all the implications that that word has.”
— Oscar de la Renta
82. “Although I have no plans to tweet, I am fascinated by developments on the Internet.”
— Oscar de la Renta
83. “Tell me, which designers in New York do you think are great – besides me, of course.”
— Oscar de la Renta
84. “Every season I am inspired by women.”
— Oscar de la Renta
85. “Online media is increasingly influential in fashion.”
— Oscar de la Renta
86. “As far as preference between fall and spring collections, I have none that I prefer to design. With fall you have a lot more items, but of course I am from the Dominican Republic, so I love the warm weather.”
— Oscar de la Renta
87. “My beloved Hillary, do not disappoint me. You have to be President, OK?”
— Oscar de la Renta
88. “If you want to establish an international presence you can’t do so from New York. You need the consecration of Paris.”
— Oscar de la Renta
89. “Now is the most exciting time in fashion. Women are controlling their destiny now, the consumer is more knowledgeable, and I have to be better every single day.”
— Oscar de la Renta
90. “My approach is that fashion must always be optimistic, and that a woman will always be enticed by beautiful clothes.”
— Oscar de la Renta
