NEW YORK (AFP) - Oscar de la Renta on Tuesday unveiled its first collection since the death of its founder, with a beautiful debut of Latin-inspired elegance made fresh by British creative director Peter Copping.
The de la Renta show was one of the most hotly anticipated of New York Fashion Week, with fashionistas intrigued to see how he would fare only four months since the death of the legendary Dominican-born designer.
"In this, my first collection, I hope to honour Oscar's legacy and also to start a new chapter for the house," Copping wrote in a brief note.
He was appointed just weeks before de la Renta's death from cancer cut short their hopes of collaborating on the 2015 fall/winter collection. Copping said never having the chance to work with de la Renta was "something I deeply regret", but said he was "immensely proud" to have been appointed.
Pop star Taylor Swift sat in the front row with supermodel Karlie Kloss to watch the catwalk show starring model Kendall Jenner, half-sister of reality star Kim Kardashian.
Hair was swept back in elegant chignons. There were beautiful skirt suits for the lady who lunches, high necklines and delicate bows at the throat, stylish fur coats in monochrome or brown with a hint of orange.
Lines were clean and elegant, full skirts were cut just above the knee. There were creamy, blue flower prints, checks and tweed in white, black, red, burgundy, purple, orange and brown. Sequins, beads and fur-trim gave a refined, lady-like elegance. For evening, there were figure-hugging sheath dresses, sweetheart cocktail dresses with bubble skirts, or black lace halternecks.
Jenner, 19, is ruling the runway at New York Fashion Week, having also modelled at the Vera Wang, Donna Karan, Diane von Furstenberg and Alexander Wang shows. Kardashian was at the Wang show last Saturday to support her, seated in front with husband Kanye West and their toddler daughter North.
West, in fact, debuted his collaboration with Adidas Originals on Day One of the fashion week last Friday.
Over at the Zac Posen event on Monday, it was supermodel Naomi Campbell and singer Rihanna who stole the show. Campbell closed the show to cheers, dressed spectacularly in a pink glitter ball gown. Sitting in front were Rihanna and Mary J.Blige, and guests also included Uzo Aduba, Christina Hendricks, Kesha and Abigail Breslin.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese-Australian model Hannah Quinlivan was reported to have fainted backstage at the Lacoste show on Sunday, spurring talk that she might already be pregnant.
She was back at work in New York following her two wedding celebrations with singer Jay Chou in Taipei and England, reported Apple Daily.
She said on Weibo later that she was okay and friends told Apple that baby news was unlikely.
