When Oscar de la Renta Told Hillary Clinton Not to Wear Black
“What’s Senator Clinton wearing?” the designer wants to know. It’s
Inauguration Day and De la Renta is in his studio, too busy tweaking his
new collection to attend the festivities. He is squinting at Chrissy
Haldis, a tall, willowy, and by all accounts mannequin-mute brunette who
has served as his house model for the past two collections. She stands
rotating in slow circles, sheathed in rare, velvety Uzbekistani fabric
that, when hemmed and cut, will become a long coat retailing in the
neighborhood of $10,000. In De la Renta’s adjoining office, the
inauguration is being broadcast over the Internet—there is Laura Bush,
pert and stately in a pearly De la Renta cashmere dress, though the
designer is currently concerned about the clothes another client,
Hillary Clinton, has chosen for the event.
“She’s wearing black,” someone points out.
De la Renta frowns. “What?”
“It’s a black jacket, and a—”
He cuts her off. “Oh, I always tell Senator Clinton . . .” He pauses
delicately. “Well, I mean, I’m sure she looks beautiful. Hillary is a
beautiful woman. But I always tell her not to wear black. She looks
tough in black”—he tenses his fists and jaw to illustrate his point—“and
she is more than just a tough lady. The problem is that everything else
she has, every other piece of clothing that’s not black, is mine, and
with Mrs. Bush also wearing something of mine today . . . ”
After a moment, De la Renta simply laughs. The designer, who grew up
under a dictatorship, seems to find politics most compelling, not as an
engine of policy and social change, but as a theater of bombastic
personalities kept in line by social formality.
“I’m a nonpartisan voter,” he says with a smile. “I vote for the
man, not the party. I voted for Clinton, but I voted for Bush. I also
voted for Reagan.” He pauses. “Black! I cannot believe she’s wearing
black!”
Source : http://blog.longreads.com/2014/10/21/when-oscar-de-la-renta-told-hillary-clinton-not-to-wear-black/
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