Tonight was the Oscar de la Renta night!
Peter Copping, Oscar de la Renta’s handpicked successor, made his runway debut. On one side of the catwalk arrayed to the left and right of Oscar’s widow, Annette, were dames like Barbara Walters, Nancy Kissinger, Mica Ertegun, and Anne Bass.
On the other side were BFFs Taylor Swift and Oscar favorite Karlie Kloss wearing coordinated, colorful frocks and attracting the eyes of everyone in the room.
De la Renta and Copping were to have worked side by side, but de la Renta’s death, just days after Copping was appointed last October, prevented that. Copping left a type-written note on each seat: “I am immensely proud to have been chosen as the creative director of Oscar de la Renta,” he began. “Unfortunately things did not go according to our plans and I never had the chance to work with Oscar, which is something I deeply regret.”
Copping infused the evening pieces with a certain youthfulness by using unlined lace for bodices, and working on new necklines.
But if the fit on those numbers wasn’t quite as finessed as longtime Oscar followers remember, Copping demonstrated his deft sense of color—midnight blue and violet, chartreuse and bordeaux—and a special eye for detail.
An ivory column with black embroidered flowers was exquisite, all the more so when it walked by and you got a look at the deep lace inset in back. There was a lot of poise in that gown. All things considered, this was a graceful start.
