Oscar de la Renta Metal and Resin Floral Necklace & Clip On Earrings. 

Gold toned metal and resin. Red and gold toned. 

Size: 20 x 3 in. 

Oscar Arístides Renta Fiallo (known professionally as Oscar de la Renta) was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on July 22nd, 1932. The youngest of seven children and the only boy in his family, Oscar was raised in a loving but strict Catholic environment, and was heavily traumatized by the death of his mother from multiple sclerosis when he was 18. Encouraged by her dying words, he decided to pursue art full time, and traveled to Spain that year to study at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. To make ends meet while abroad he drew clothing designs for newspapers and local fashion houses, which led to his first major commission for Francesca Lodge, the wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Spain. The gown he made for her daughter appeared on the cover of Life magazine and brought him to the attention of Spain’s leading fashion makers, resulting in an apprenticeship with Cristóbal Balenciaga. In 1961 de la Renta left Spain to join Antonio del Castillo as a couture assistant at Lanvin in Paris. In 1963, de la Renta was encouraged by Diana Vreeland, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, to go work for Elizabeth Arden to get into ready-to-wear garments and to be quickly promoted to head designer. He worked for Arden for two years in New York City before he went to work for Jane Derby, an American fashion house. When Derby died in August 1965, de la Renta took over the label. Over the next thirty years his designs became particularly popular with female celebrities and royalty, resulting in an extremely successful series of wholesale and retails lines as well. In 1966 de la Renta married Françoise de Langlade, an editor-in-chief of French Vogue, and was with her until she died from cancer in 1983. In 1967 and 1968 de la Renta won the Coty Award, and from both 1973 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988 he served as President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. He branched out into creating bridal wear, fragrances, designing interiors (including over a hundred home furnishings for Century Furniture), and hotel planning. In 1990 he married Annette Engelhard, and his stepdaughter Eliza Bolen now serves as Vice President of Licensing at Oscar de la Renta, LLC. King Juan Carlos I of Spain bestowed de la Renta with two awards in 2000, the Gold Medal of Bellas Artes and the La Gran Cruz de la Orden del Mérito Civil. He was recognized by the French government with the Légion d'honneur as a Commandeur. De la Renta founded the Casa del Niño orphanage in La Romana, and both designed and funded the construction of a school near his home in Punta Cana. He held dual citizenship in the Dominican Republic and the United States, and for his charitable work and service as a board member of the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall he received an honorary degree from Hamilton College in 2013. De la Renta was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, and died from complications after a long battle with it on October 20th, 2014 at his home in Kent, Connecticut. Today his eponymous fashion house is run by two of his apprentices, Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, and is still headquartered on Madison Avenue in Manhattan with hundreds of boutiques around the world.