The grand theater-in-the-round setting for Oscar de la Renta s resort show put some audience members in mind of Chanel s recent presentations, but if there was a designer s influence at play in this beautiful collection, other than de la Renta s own, it could have been Yves Saint Laurent s. Loulou de la Falaise, YSL s longtime muse-turned-fellow designer, was sitting front-and-center (coincidentally, as it happened), and up on the raised platform there were seventies references like a white cotton piqué safari jacket, an off-the-shoulder ruffled taffeta dress, and a striking orange top worn with sweeping, wide-leg lime-green silk pants.
In between, it was all Oscar: natty, nautical separates like striped sweaters and cuffed trousers; trim, almost minimal skirtsuits with short-sleeve jackets in white or cream; and drop-waist sleeveless dresses with a full ruffle to the knee—one of the chicest in shades of brown that subtly evoked the Me Decade. Accessories, especially the white patent belts that he paired with everything from a grosgrain ribbon-embroidered coat in black and navy to a tangerine silk faille ball gown, kept the look and feel of the show firmly in the twenty-first century. And as for those evening gowns, a pair of printed chiné taffeta dresses (one in marigold, another in coral) may have had the front-row lovelies—Renée Rockefeller, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer—reconsidering their outfits for tonight s CFDA Awards, where, of course, de la Renta is nominated for Womenswear Designer of the Year.
