The sense of romantic luxury celebrated in the work of Oscar de la Renta has a varied provenance that includes the bright tropical sunlight of his native Dominican Republic, art school in Madrid, and training in the couture houses of Balenciaga and Lanvin-Castillo.
He established his fashion empire in the '60s by suggesting the Belle Époque style had a place in contemporary urban New York, and since then has extended his particular brand of opulence to the home furnishings market, where the history of European decorative arts converges with the lush color and sensuality of a Caribbean lifestyle. Furniture and textiles are often inspired by pieces he has collected or made himself for his own homes: Punta Cana, his coral stone plantation in the Dominican Republic; Kent, his Connecticut estate; or his elegant Park Avenue apartment in Manhattan.
The pleated silk throw pillows, sumptuous floral bed linens, and exceptionally deep plush sofas in de la Renta's Home Collection bring a like sense of extravagance to residential furnishings. Lavish attention is paid to textiles, often delicately embroidered in India or China. As he once asked Traditional Home, "If people come to my homes and love the way I live, why would they not want to buy the kind of furniture I live with?" -Akiko Busch
Oscar de la Renta's website:
www.oscardelarenta.com
