André Leon Talley is the curator of “Oscar de la Renta: His Legendary World of Style,” to celebrate the memorable life and designs of the illustrious couturier whose work set the standard for timeless elegance. The exhibition takes place in Savannah, Georgia, at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
To honor the genius designer and friend, Talley decided to began the exhibition shortly after de la Renta’s passing in October. “It’s not a retrospective,” Talley says. “Everything has been selected from my own memory, my moments.” Talley knows almost every client that Oscar dressed. He went into the wardrobes of many of the distinguished women who have become his friends over the decades. “I was literally inside their closets.”
This exhibition features 70 garments, many designed exclusively for de la Renta’s closest friends and family.
De la Renta dressed such Hollywood A-listers as Oprah Winfrey,Sarah Jessica Parker, Nicole Kidman and Taylor Swift, as well as former First Ladies, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton, Golden dress worn by Nicole Kidman, Miranda Brooks’s gown, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette .
Talley says, “even though they are a generation apart. These clothes say to me, Oscar can dress everyone from a young girl to a grand lady.”
“Oscar came from the couture world, so you are going to get the bow, the train!” “He always wanted the appropriate look, a sense of the occasion. He would ask himself, ‘Is it beautiful? Will they wear it? Is it elegant? ”
Dress worn by Alexandra Kotur
Coat worn by Anna Wintour

Coat worn by Annette de la Renta