Seen here with dear friend Oprah, designer Oscar De La Renta has died.
He will truly be missed by the fashion world and family.
The man -- often described as the "sultan of suave" -- dressed every first lady since Jacqueline Kennedy. Among those whose glamor factor his dresses jazzed up: Oprah Winfrey, Ann Hathaway and, most recently, George Clooney's bride Amal Alamuddin.
"We will always remember him as the man who made women look and feel beautiful," former first lady Laura Bush said late Monday night. De la Renta designed the wedding dress for her daughter, Jenna.
The cause of death announced by close family friends and industry colleagues, was not immediately clear. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, but said last year he was "totally clean."
"The only realities in life are that you are born, and that you die," he told an audience at New York's 92Y "Fashion Talks" series in June 2013. "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."
And what a life he lived.
"He was a true, true gentlemen, in the truest sense of the word -- a real bright light -- and this is just a terrible, terrible loss for the fashion world," said Alina Cho, fashion journalist and editor at large at Random House.
Beginnings
Born July 22, 1932, in the Dominican Republic, de la Renta was the only son of seven children.
"My father had different aspirations for me than I had for myself," he told the "Fashion Talks" audience. "If I ever told my father I would become a fashion designer, he would drop dead on the spot."
This obituary includes biographical information from Vogue magazine, biography.com, Current Biography, Contemporary Fashion and Dictionary of Hispanic Biography.
