Oscar de la Renta on Fashion, Legacy and Heritage

In 2004, Women’s Wear Daily, known for its Milestone coverage, celebrated Oscar de la Renta‘s 40th anniversary in fashion. Dubbed “Mr. Charm” by John B. Fairchild, de la Renta reflected on his brand’s expansion a continuation of blending timeless elegance that honored his Hispanic heritage. Known for his wit and grace, de la Renta, who WWD recently named one of its 115th anniversary year Legends, reflected on a love for fashion and lessons learned over decades. Here is an excerpt from his 2004 interview with WWD, edited for brevity.

WWD: Oscar, your business is hotter than ever: But after 40 years, do you ever think of retiring?
Oscar de la Renta: No. I have been doing this for so many years and in all the years I have been working, I have never had as good a time as I’m having now.

WWD: Why?
O.d.l.R.: I think that, probably, a lot of things I should have been doing a long time ago, I’m doing now. (In 2005 Oscar de la Renta was expanding its retail footprint as a global brand.)

WWD: Do you regret not having done this earlier?
O.d.l.R.: I never regret anything. Listen, I had a great time doing what I was doing. And I have a great time doing what I’m doing now. I think life is too short for regrets. When you start regretting, “Oh, my god, I should have done that..” You didn’t do it — so?

WWD: You said you loved your life before, so why add more stress now?
O.d.l.R.: Stress is only when I read my reviews. Yes, there is always a moment — what I call panic time — before a collection. All creative work is always full of self-doubt. When people say, “Oh, my goodness. After so many years doing this, it must be a cinch to do,” I say, “Of course it isn’t. Every time is far more difficult.”

WWD: I would think it just gets harder, and the schedule now leaves little room for down time.
O.d.l.R.: Fortunately for me, I always do my very best work when I know that I only have 10 days.

WWD: The business has changed so much in the past 40 years. Do you feel those changes acutely?
O.d.l.R.: Obviously, the demands have just so greatly changed. One of the best things [was the calendar change, with New York showing first during collections.] I read the other day that because of Helmut Lang, we changed our dates. I don’t remember that being so.

WWD: Let’s talk about the relationships, the professionalism — how you keep aware of what the customer wants?
O.d.l.R.: It’s not so much being aware of what the customer wants, that you do sort of instinctively, but understanding the needs of your vendors. That’s very important. For example, years back, I would never say, “I’m going to be showing resort, and this is what I’m doing.” They would see it when they came in. Now, to me, it’s important to talk to the people and say, “This is what I’m thinking now.”

WWD: During the design process, you talk to the stores?
O.d.l.R.: Yes. I will call them and [sometimes] show them what I’m doing so that they can plan ahead. That has become unbelievably important for me: having the dialogue.

WWD: One often gets the impression from designers of diminished respect for retailers. You don’t have that at all.
O.d.l.R.: My work has always been about listening and working with other people. Even in my private life, I hate to be by myself. In my office, I love to be surrounded with people. I come and sit in [my private] office very, very seldom. I’m always out there. And I want to listen to the opinion of everyone. Ultimately, it’s going to be my opinion, my choice, what I think. But I like to listen to everyone’s opinion. And I want to listen to the opinion of the vendors and of the stores. I might agree or I might disagree, but it’s always important to listen to their point of view because they are the ones who have access to the consumer.

WWD: I remember [former creative director] Adam Lippes telling me that no one is afraid to tell the truth around here.
O.d.l.R.: Absolutely. If they hate it, they should say that they hate it.

WWD: Have you ever heard, “I hate it, Oscar”?
O.d.l.R.: All the time. Probably my most terrified time right now is when one of my assistants — and I want to hear it — say, “Well, it looks old.” I want to hear that.

WWD: It’s become a cliché, but do you think it’s harder for young designers now?
O.d.l.R.: Much harder. First of all, the stakes are so much higher: When I started, you could start a business with very little money. Today, the investment is much bigger: And not only with the press, but, most important, with stores and vendors — the darling of one season might be the forgotten one the following season. That makes it tough. You can’t be wonderful all the time. But you have to have a sense of stability so that even if a given collection isn’t fantastic, there’s enough there to keep it going. Then, once you create a sense of identity — not at the level of the store, but at the level of the consumer — then it is much more difficult to discard you within one season.

WWD: At what point does that happen?
O.d.l.R.: When people recognize your clothes and know what you stand for it takes a very long time. It doesn’t happen in 24 hours.

WWD: At what point did it happen for you?
O.d.l.R.: I thought that it happened right away when actually it took much longer: I came to Seventh Avenue, and for two consecutive years, in 1967 and 1968, I won the Coty Award. I thought I was world-famous. The following year, the collection didn’t do so well, and Ben Shaw, who was then the major stockholder in the Oscar de la Renta house, wanted to replace me. I was lucky that I had a contract and said, “If you want to fire me, buy my contract out.” Not that they needed a lot of money to buy me out, but at the time….It’s such a fragile kind of business, and so much more difficult today than it was then.

WWD: After that sobering experience, when did you start to feel comfortable in the business as a designer, as a presence in the industry?
O.d.l.R.: I have never felt totally comfortable. But again, the self-doubt is what gets your juices going. The day that you say, “Oh, my goodness, I am the very best,” is the day you should stop.

WWD: Do you remember what lured you to fashion in the first place?
O.d.l.R.: I come from a country where there’s no tradition for fashion. At the time I grew up, I was never interested because it was not part of my world. I wanted to be a painter: I graduated from school in the Dominican Republic and then went to Spain to continue with my studies. It was in Spain that I started getting interested in fashion. First, I wanted to do fashion illustration because I could draw very well and I thought I could make some extra money. And then I started doing fashion. In Spain, there were a lot of fashion houses where you could design something and sell it to them. I started to freelance and then went for a year to work for Balenciaga in Madrid. From then on, I started to take it very seriously and thought perhaps I could be a fashion designer. I never went to fashion school. Not that I would advise anyone today not to do it.

WWD: You wouldn’t?
O.d.l.R.: No. It took me a very, very long time to really learn my trade. It’s very funny because today, I can look at the beautiful illustration, but then I look at the construction of the garment itself to know if the person who made this illustration knows what he’s talking about.

WWD: Did that start coming together at Balenciaga?
O.d.l.R.: At Balenciaga, I could spend time in the sample room and see how clothes were being cut and being made. That was so valuable, because I really didn’t know anything.

WWD: Do you remember your first impression of Cristóbal Balenciaga?
O.d.l.R.: He was an extremely kind man. Remember, by the time I started working for Balenciaga in Madrid, he was already working in Paris. One thing about Balenciaga is that he remained very, very Spanish. He would finish his collection in Paris and then he would come to Madrid and do his collection for his Spanish clientele. His sister was the one who was running the house in Madrid.

WWD: At the time, did you have thoughts of one day heading a Parisian house, as you ultimately did at Balmain?
O.d.l.R.: If I had stayed in Paris, I probably would have become the head designer for Lanvin, because [Antonio] Castillo left and was starting his own business. There were only two assistants, and I think I was better than the other one. We would show Castillo the sketches of what we were planning to do and that was about it. The head designer would not involve himself in the ready-to-wear. I thought that the future of fashion was really ready-to-wear: So it was the lure of New York, making more money, being closer to home, perhaps starting on my own.

WWD: Let’s fast-forward many, many years to your appointment at Balmain. Did you think of yourself as blazing a trail? After you, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors and Narciso Rodriguez all signed with European houses.
O.d.l.R.: Not really. I loved doing Balmain for the years I did it — first, because I was paid fairly well for doing it. But the couture is a very different kind of animal. I realized when I started working at Balmain that, in fact, I had to relearn again what haute couture really was.

WWD: As you’ve said, you’re not a loner: You are a very social, worldly person with diverse interests. How has all of that informed your work?
O.d.l.R.: A lot, because a lot of the people who are my friends wear my clothes.

WWD: Does your breadth of interests make you a better, more informed designer?
O.d.l.R.: I think that my sense of curiosity makes me a better designer. Not a better designer, that’s patronizing. It makes me understand my craft better. I’ve always thought that, to be able to design, you just have to keep your eyes open and understand who your consumer is, understanding their lifestyle and what their needs are.

WWD: What do you like least about your job, fashion, the whole thing?
O.d.l.R.: I like the excitement. I hate bad reviews.

WWD: When that’s happened, you seem to have taken it in stride.
O.d.l.R.: Sometimes bad reviews don’t mean bad business. A journalist looks at a collection with a very different eye than a consumer looks at collections. That’s something you have to focus on.

WWD: What do you love most about your job?
O.d.l.R.: I like the excitement.

— Bridget Foley