Early Years
De la Renta was born Oscar Aristides de la Renta Fiallo in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to a Dominican mother, Maria Antonia Fiallo, and a Puerto Rican father, Oscar Avelino de la Renta. The Fiallos were so embedded in Dominican society that they could count poets, scholars, and businessmen as well as top army brass among their members. One of Maria Antonia's brothers, Aristides Fiallo Cabral, was an intellectual- a doctor, lawyer, architect, and recipient of every degree the University of Santo Domingo could confer. Another brother, Fabio Fiallo, was a diplomat and poet. On his father's side, de la Renta's great great grandfather José Ortíz de la Renta was the first constitutional mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico to be elected by popular vote. He served as mayor from 1812 to 1814, from 1815 to 1816, from 1820 to 1821, from 1823 to 1826, from 1837 to 1838, from 1842 to 1843, from 1843 to 1844, and 1846. He had the distinction of having held the office of mayor of Ponce the most-eight times.
At the age of 18 he left the Dominican Republic to study in Spain, where he studied painting at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. He quickly became interested in the world of fashion design and began sketching for leading Spanish fashion houses, which soon led to an apprenticeship with Spain's most renowned couturier, Cristóbal Balenciaga. Later, de la Renta left Spain to join Antonio Castillo as a couture assistant at Lanvin in Paris.
Read more about this topic: Oscar De La Renta
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“We have been told over and over about the importance of bonding to our children. Rarely do we hear about the skill of letting go, or, as one parent said, “that we raise our children to leave us.” Early childhood, as our kids gain skills and eagerly want some distance from us, is a time to build a kind of adult-child balance which permits both of us room.”
—Joan Sheingold Ditzion (20th century)
“When the world was half a thousand years younger all events had much sharper outlines than now. The distance between sadness and joy, between good and bad fortune, seemed to be much greater than for us; every experience had that degree of directness and absoluteness which joy and sadness still have in the mind of a child”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)