The gown\u2019s grace and couture-quality craftsmanship summoned the house\u2019s glamorous past. But its off touches \u2013 the crinkled paper-bag collar, the graphic black ribbons tied in seemingly ad hoc ways \u2013 provided a map to the future. Oscar de la Renta was the most romantic of designers. And Peter Copping was offering a new kind of romance.<\/p>\n
In New York fashion circles, \u201cOscar\u201d doesn\u2019t refer to an Academy Award. \u201cOscar\u201d is the shorthand for Oscar de la Renta, the courtly designer who, over the course of his 50-year career, dressed innumerable stars for the Academy\u2019s red carpet, not to mention providing looks for every American First Lady since Betty Ford and earning the devotion of socialites and world-class clotheshorses such as Babe Paley and CZ Guest. One of his last creative acts before his death, in October 2014, was to make Amal Clooney\u2019s wedding gown. Another was his appointment of Peter Copping to be his successor.<\/p>\n At first glance, the two men couldn\u2019t seem more different. De la Renta, native of the Dominican Republic, exuded \u201cLatin lover\u201d charm and was a notorious social butterfly, joining his clients for nights out at Studio 54 and inviting them to his lavish Connecticut estate. Copping, born in Oxford, now \u2013 along with his partner, the French-born florist Rambert Rigaud \u2013 a resident of New York, is possessed of some native English reserve. His self-effacing nature is reflected in the fact that he has spent most of his career, thus far, in the back rooms of Paris houses such as Louis Vuitton.<\/p>\n On meeting Copping, it is easy to understand why Oscar would have felt comfort\u00adable bequeathing his business to him: he reads as a steady hand, gracious but not ingratiating. There\u2019s also something studious about him, revealed in the ways he talks about the de la Renta oeuvre, pointing out aspects of the house that are often glossed over, such as its historic strength in sharp sportswear. You have to look at Copping\u2019s work to discover the strain of eccentricity that lurks within him, and which he\u2019s found devious ways of applying to any design task he has at hand. When he first stepped into the limelight in 2009, taking the reins at Nina Ricci, he attained nigh-on instant fluency in its coquettish, classically French idiom \u2013 but spoke it in his own gently unconventional accent.<\/p>\n Oscar \u2013 \u201cAmerican fashion royalty\u201d, as Donatella Versace has said \u2013 perceived a kinship with Copping the soft-spoken fashion journeyman. He saw beyond the reserve, and beyond the undertow of quirk. \u201cIt was romance,\u201d Copping says. \u201cOscar and I shared a belief in fashion romance\u201d.<\/p>\n What is fashion romance? And what does it mean in New York, where the focus is less on spinning dreams than on building brands? Copping takes on these questions from his light-filled office, once Oscar\u2019s own, in a skyscraper overlooking Bryant Park. De la Renta\u2019s books still line the shelves. Outside the office, Copping\u2019s team toil away on speculative designs for the forthcoming autumn 2016 show \u2013 everywhere you look, there are scraps of bead-embroidered tulle, strings of beads. It\u2019s the world\u2019s most beautiful trash.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you talk about romance in fashion, you\u2019re talking about a few things,\u201d Copping says. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about fantasy, first of all. And you\u2019re talking about craft \u2013 those details of construction and embellishment that make a garment feel special. And the challenge in creating a sense of romance that feels modern,\u201d he goes on to note, \u201cis that the customer has changed. We still have our loyal client, and we want to serve her. These are women who understand the make of clothes, they know how things are supposed to feel, how they\u2019re supposed to fit.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that knowledge is in shorter supply now,\u201d Copping continues. \u201cOur younger customers aren\u2019t flying to Paris with their mothers to get fitted for couture. Some of them are coming to Oscar after building their own successful businesses. They\u2019re not \u2018ladies who lunch\u2019, and they don\u2019t want to be. They want to look beautiful and glamorous, and they want details that thrill them, but overall, the fantasy has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n Copping\u2019s remarks point to another important quality he shares with Oscar \u2013 perhaps the important quality. When de la Renta died, virtually every tribute made note of his deep respect for women, a respect he demonstrated by endeavouring to enhance their beauty. He was not a designer to offer an eccentric proportion for novelty\u2019s sake, and he shaped his collections around his clients\u2019 needs, whether gowns to wear to galas or luxurious day wear. De la Renta considered his customers\u2019 lives \u2013 their actual lives and their aspirations \u2013 and Copping shares that attentiveness. Which means he\u2019s seen a new attitude taking hold.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s different now from when Oscar started designing, is that women don\u2019t want to look so \u2018done\u2019 any more,\u201d Copping notes. \u201cWomen like Amanda Seyfried or Diane Kruger, who wear our clothes brilliantly, they\u2019ve got the confidence to mix up looks, and an ability to wear even very dressy clothes in a casual way. That\u2019s what I think when I consider how I\u2019d like to move Oscar de la Renta forward. I\u2019m imagining how I can introduce elements of off-ness, little gestures that communicate a sense of ease.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Peter](\"http:\/\/www.brabbu.com\/en\/news-events\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/0.jpg\")
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