Oscar de la Renta Debuts a New Fragrance

Oscar de la Renta in his New York studio

	De la Renta’s latest fragrance, Live in Love, just arrived in stores
	De la Renta’s boutique at Wynn Las Vegas
	A look from the designer’s Resort collection

Nicki Minaj walks by, resplendent in a leopard-print bustier and a hat fashioned from a child’s stuffed tiger, while across the runway, frenzied photographers shout for Justin Timberlake to smile in their direction. But amid this pre-show cacophony, what’s pulling the focus from these high-wattage moments is that Oscar de la Renta smells really, exceptionally quite good.

He is minutes away from the New York debut of his Spring/Summer 2012 collection, but de la Renta smiles broadly when I mention this. “It’s my own scent, the old Oscar fragrance,” the designer says, referring to Oscar Pour Lui, a blend of moss, vetiver, sage and sandalwood that launched in 1980. “We don’t make it anymore, but I still have it made for myself. Though we’re going to bring it back.”

And again de la Renta smiles, content once more in the future of his fragrance collection. In January 2010, his company reacquired its license for the category from American distributor L’Oréal—“I was not very happy with what was happening with my fragrance business,” he says simply—and the fruit of that labor just arrived in stores (locally at his boutique at Wynn Las Vegas): Live in Love, de la Renta’s first brand-new debut in 10 years. “It’s a green scent, one I find very refreshing,” he says of the fragrance, which combines notes that include ginger orchid, bergamot, hyacinth, and amber. Unsurprisingly, de la Renta also designed the bottle, dominated by faceted sides meant to represent the many facets of a woman’s life.

A Life of Love
But it’s the name that resonates most deeply with de la Renta. “Live in Love is about everything that surrounds you—about appreciating the beauty that’s everywhere, even though sometimes we don’t see it right away,” he says. “Being happy is not a difficult thing, but for some it can be a bit of a secret, and you have to be able to find that secret for yourself.”

Such a philosophy aligns easily with how de la Renta approaches the many facets of his business. “The essence of every collection I do is the same,” says de la Renta, who founded his label in 1965, “to do the very best I can, and to make a woman feel wonderful about herself.” Approaching his 47th year with his eponymous label, de la Renta has never strayed far from that thought, crafting collections that achieve the elusive balance of luxury, sophistication, and femininity. He may be most proud of his impact on the latter. “I always want to understand my customer, her dreams, her aspirations—but also knowing that today, almost every single woman works,” he says. “Back in the ’70s and early ’80s, everything was changing for women in the workforce, and women thought the way to do it was to dress like a man. Now a woman knows her femininity is powerful and important. This is the woman I want to make clothes for.”

His Resort collection, which arrives in stores this month, plays into that idea with what are roundly agreed to be among his most thoughtful designs in recent memory. “It’s an important collection for us,” he says. The inspiration: Pablo Picasso’s Cubist period, seen in the collage- like embroideries of his crisp sleeveless sheaths, in the artful scribble splashed across a ball gown in black and white organza, and in the tonalities of a blue-sequined column gown, its Cubist-inspired handwork descending from the strapless neckline. Yet while he’s proud of the collection and pleased with its reception, de la Renta is not one to reminisce. “I’m always thinking of the next one,” he says.

Still, one can’t help but enjoy the associations of this particular Resort collection—and its place in Las Vegas. De la Renta is no doubt enamored of Picasso partly because the designer’s first stop after leaving his Dominican home at the age of 18 was Madrid, where he studied painting. Meanwhile, those Picassoinspired prints, I point out to de la Renta, should look quite at home in his Wynn boutique; after all, Steve Wynn’s earliest inspiration for his resort was a painting in his own collection, Picasso’s Le Rêve, or “The Dream.”

De la Renta thinks for a moment, and now his smile is tinged with a hint of mischief. “Perhaps Steve will like the collection so much,” the designer says, “he’ll give me a Picasso.”