Paying Tribute to Couturier Oscar de la Renta
Thursday of this week marked the start of New York Fashion Week, the exciting preview of all the fabulous outfits that will be on sale next spring. I just love all the colorful catwalk shows and wonderful parties that take place during this event. On Wednesday, before all of the festivities got underway, I was thrilled to attend a celebration for fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, where he was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Couture Council. About 1,000 people gathered at the David H. Koch Theatre at Lincoln Center in New York City to pay tribute to the Dominican Republic-born designer. Oscar de la Renta launched his fashion line in 1965 and he soon became famous when he was chosen as one of the couturiers who would dress Jacqueline Kennedy. Throughout the years, his fashions have flourished and today, de la Renta’s eponymous fashion house continues dressing women in the most exquisite clothing and accessories.
1 Entering the David H. Koch Theatre at Lincoln Center
2 Here I am with trial lawyer, Michael Kennedy.
3 Designer Isabel Toledo in a moire or faux bois printed coat
4 Everyone was smiling and happy at this fashion event.
5 Two beauties wearing Oscar de la Renta - Barbara Regna and Tiffany Khoury
6 Short dresses and long legs - the best combination!
7 The Great Hall Promenade is a perfect venue for events, like this. I recently attended a festive evening for Ralph Lauren in this same space and also the opening of the ballet and other events.
8 The tables were colorful and beautiful and there were close to a thousand guests.
9 This event was catered by Glorious Food. The first course was a papaya filled with balls of melon tossed in lime juice.
10 The man of honor, Oscar de la Renta, is a most attractive, sexy, and talented designer and very deserving of any honor!
11 Pamela Fiore, the legendary editor, was sitting next to Susan Magrino, my long-time publicist, who looked great in Oscar.
12 The elegant program
13 Dr. Joyce Brown, the president of Fashion Institute of Technology, gave greetings.
14 The multi-tiered photo 'gallery'
15 Two monumental sculptures flank the great hall - 'Circus Women' sculpted by Elie Nadelman - 1931 - carved from a single block of Carrera marble.
16 A great dress on a great body!
17 My hostess, Sarah Wolfe
18 I wore Valentino with my Mikimoto pearls. I am posing with Evie Evangelou, co-founder and global chair of Fashion 4 Development.
19 Stefano Tonci - Editor of W, Sarah Wolfe, and Alex Gonzalez - Creative Director of W
20 Mayor Bloomberg bestowed the honor and the guest of honor, Oscar's wife Annette de la Renta, is talking to Henry Kissinger. To Mr. Kisssinger's left is the Mayor's girlfriend, Diane Taylor.
21 Mayor Bloomberg and the president of FIT, Dr. Joyce Brown
22 I stopped by to say hello and congratulations for such an amazing turnout.
23 The great Kenneth Jay Lane, the famous jewelry designer
24 The publicist, Peggy Siegal, photographed from afar
25 Liz Peek, the investment analyst and journalist, introduced Mayor Bloomberg.
26 Michael Bloomberg gave an enlightening and very funny speech before presenting the honor to Oscar de la Renta.
27 The Mayor joked that de la Renta's designs 'have been to more award shows than Meryl Streep.'
28 Oscar de la Renta declared himself 'an extremely lucky man' and his main message was that 'a designer needs training, and more training to be proficient and excellent at his craft.'
29 The gentleman on the left Sean Driscoll, the founder of Glorious Food caterers. He has fed nearly every socialite many, many times!
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
WOW!!!!!!!!
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | September 7th, 2012 at 1:01 am
What a great tribute!
Posted by: Holiday Baker Man | September 7th, 2012 at 3:26 am
And, I love his perfume. It's my favorite.
Posted by: Gretchen | September 7th, 2012 at 4:43 am
Beautiful and elegant evening and event. I love Oscar De La Renta's style of fashion. Your dress is gorgeous and your Mikimoto's golden south sea pearls are beautiful.
Best wishes
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | September 7th, 2012 at 5:41 am
You looked radiant !
Posted by: Karen Ross | September 7th, 2012 at 7:40 am
What a glamerous event! Martha, your Valentino dress is gorgeous and your Mikimoto pearls are stunning! Oscar de la Renta is an icon in the fashion industry and his designs are classic and timeless, thank you Martha for sharing this evening. Have a great weekend everyone!
Posted by: Cindy F | September 7th, 2012 at 8:35 am
You look so great Martha! Thanks for sharing this blog.
Posted by: KLBrown | September 7th, 2012 at 8:36 am
Love those pearls, Martha! You are looking fantastic, too.
Sharon
Posted by: Sharon | September 7th, 2012 at 9:46 am
Hi Martha, WOW! You certainly had a great time attending this latest event to honor Oscar de la Renta who is a fabulous fashion designer from the Dominican Republic who started in 1965! How neat that he became a couturier chosen to design for Jacqueline Kennedy! His fashion designing has been the best! This sure was a great event with 1,000 people present at this event at The David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in NYC! I just love seeing all of these fabulous photos and reading all of the great comments about this event! How right you were about everyone smiling, especially you and Oscar! Your outfit was beautiful and you looked so happy and gorgeous in these photos! Thanks for letting us see this latest, fantastic event you attended! Thanks also for being back on Twitter because I love reading all of your tweets! Hope you have a wonderful time today and this weekend again! Off to see The Daily Wag with A Lesson in Compost! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | September 7th, 2012 at 10:18 am
Another remarkable thing about you, Martha--you can still show your long (modeling) legs with a dress!
Posted by: Rose | September 7th, 2012 at 11:08 am
Your blog is great, but I am missing you daily on your program, do you have a plan on another daily program. I have. Watched you for years. How about how to use your years after retirement?
Posted by: Martha Angell | September 7th, 2012 at 12:06 pm
I bet that was a fun gathering! I agree with everything you wrote in picture #10 about Oscar de la Renta. I like visiting his site just to hear the music from the runway show. I think years ago he had music the minute you got to the site or maybe I have him mixed up with another designer. Designers amaze me by the way. I mean year after year coming up with new and different designs can't be easy yet they manage to do it. What a talent and congratulations to Oscar on his award!
~
I just voted in your American Made contest and it is nice to know we can vote every day through September 24 and win prizes for our efforts. Trish
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http://americanmade.marthastewart.com/
Posted by: Trish | September 7th, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Lovely seeing you Martha! You looked radiant as always! What a fabulous luncheon! Have a great weekend & thank you for the pictures, xoxo Barbara
Posted by: Barbara | September 7th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Friends a Combination of Poetry and Design
By S Mapes
Emily Dickinson and Martha Stewart would make great friends.
Emily writing detail into poetry
Martha weaving detail into decoration
Emily, chatting politely with Martha, about their mutual intentions-
to lure the bystanders by wit and cunning talent
Martha, chatting politely with Emily about persuading their audience-
that writing and decorating can be attempted by the novice
Emily Dickinson and Martha Stewart would make great friends.
Emily mastered the mundane word to make glamorous poetry
Martha wove the mundane interior design into a glamorous house
Posted by: Susan Mapes | September 7th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
I love picture #2 of you! You and your friend look so happy and relaxed. Oscar De La Renta has such a beautiful mind. His fashion captures all that is beautiful about women.
Posted by: Karen | September 7th, 2012 at 8:38 pm
Great photos! Beautiful dresses. As always, so interesting to see your photo report.
Posted by: Julia | September 8th, 2012 at 2:43 am
Hello martha!
It's always nice to read your blogs. Isnt the Koch theater beautiful? I have similar pictures and were so lucky to have this institution in our backyard. We always try to catch the nutcracker during the winter season.
Thanks,
Tim
Posted by: Tim | September 11th, 2012 at 8:43 pm
Martha, thanks for a lovely evening. As usual, you look fantastic. Your dress is lovely, just right. What is the length? I trust your guidance on style. Your pearls are wonderful.
I wish you would write a book giving ideas on clothing, shoes, accessories, etc., for women who don't trust the outfits they put together. Please think about it.
I never cease to be amazed at the many things you do, so well. You obviously have a lot of energy.
Posted by: Martha Coan | September 18th, 2012 at 10:56 pm