BYS TA NDE R
FASHIONPHOTOGRAPHS: CAMERA PRESS; GETTYtatler.com October 2019 63Oscar de la Renta’s protégés
have ushered in a gorgeous
new wave of high glamour,
says Osman AhmedIn 2016 – after having left to set
up their own label, Monse – they
returned as Creative Directors of
Oscar de la Renta. ‘What intimidated
both of us, more than the clothes,
was the idea of replacing the man,’
says Garcia of their appointment.
Yet they found creating the clothes
second nature, having worked for
the brand for so long. ‘Because it
was the first job for both of us, we
were slightly moulded to his aesthetic.
So we never thought “OK, we have
to add that bow to Oscar-ise it”, be-
cause we always had the bow in
mind to begin with,’ says Garcia. ]Doria, wore to the royal wedding.
Amal Clooney is a fan, as is Lauren
Santo Domingo (LSD, or as she’s
known in certain circles, God).
Both started their careers at the
venerable fashion house – and they
have been enacting big plans for it.
They’re still young: Garcia is 32 and
Kim is 37. Kim, a Canadian of South
Korean descent, joined from fash-
ion college at the Pratt Institute.
Garcia, who, like de la Renta, grew
up in the Dominican Republic and
didn’t go to fashion school, landed
an internship after showing the
designer his sketches.OscarwinningR OYA L
APPROVAL
The Duchess of
Sussex wears Oscar
de la Renta to the
wedding of Celia
McCorquodale and
George Woodhouse
in 2018Above,
Meghan in
Sydney.
Below, her
mother Doria
at the royal weddingTHE DAY THE ‘SULTAN OF
Suave’ died, five years ago this
October, it was said Park Avenue
lost a bit of its lustre. ‘Oscar’ was
how his dresses were often singularly
referred to: a byword for a bygone
age unhindered by routine concerns,
when the day began with a dry
martini at Le Grenouille and ended
descending the steps of the Met.
His designs combined Caribbean
colour, Latin flair and distinctly
Parisian exuberance. He dressed
New York swans for charity benefits,
lunches, dinners, weddings and big
nights out at galas. He was the only
Oscar since Wilde; he was the most
sociable man in New York, with im-
peccable manners, liquid hips and a
passion for breaking into song. He
delighted in gossip, threw dinner
parties that would triple in size by
the end of the meal and he put
the Dominican Republic on the
map as a jet-set destination (in re-
turn, the country rewarded him
with a diplomatic passport).
So when Oscar died, aged 82,
High Society wept. The house had
a two-year interlude under British-
born Creative Director Peter Copping,
before he returned to Europe, citing
‘personal circumstances’. The future
of the house was uncertain. But for
its CEO, de la Renta’s son-in-law Alex
Bolen, the successors were obvious:
Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia,
whom he subsequently appointed,
had worked under the man himself
for a combined total of 17 years.
Their tenure has resulted in a new
wave of high glamour. They regu-
larly dress the Duchess of Sussex,
and designed the outfit her mother,10-19BYST-Oscar.indd 63 16/08/2019 13:26