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 years, early and/or years:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“I do not know that I meet, in any of my Walks, Objects which move both my Spleen and Laughter so effectually, as those Young Fellows ... who rise early for no other Purpose but to publish their Laziness.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“Every milestone of a firstborn is scrutinized, photographed, recorded, replayed, and retold by doting parents to admiring relatives and disinterested friends. . . . While subsequent children will strive to keep pace with siblings a few years their senior, the firstborn will always have a seemingly Herculean task of emulating his adult parents.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)