Oscar de la Renta Fall Winter 2013

The fashion sphere was buzzing frantically last month over the appointment of infamous John Galliano as 'designer in residence' at Oscar de la Renta. A smart move by the American legend, I thought, as Galliano has been adored by fashion lovers for his big frocks and dramatic collections. Bringing him to America would be useful to expand Oscar de la Renta's range of designs and revitalize them. More than anything, asking a famous designer to another famous designer's studio showed how big hearted and humble Mr de la Renta is as a person.

The collection, to me, was a bit messy though. It began with elegant figure hugging dresses and pencil skirts in teals, browns and blacks mixed with fur. Then it proceeded to hooded capes in greys and suddenly a splash of colour was introduced with romantic motifs on brocades before the same sequence of colours were repeated in evening gowns. Sadly, I couldn't feel a cohesive collection with a theme I could put my finger on, but the dresses were all so beautiful. 

As for Galliano's presence in the collection, it was pretty hard to miss it. The large picture of Jessica Stam in the teal silk dress immediately shouted 'Galliano' to me because of the full look from the thick dramatic makeup to the 'un-de la Renta' cut of the dress. Rumours were flying around before the show that he would be sitting at the front row or take a bow with de la Renta but instead, he stayed backstage the whole time. Perhaps it was the marrying of two designers' styles that caused a lack of cohesion in this collection and if so, I'm sure this will be ironed out in upcoming collections. Nonetheless, de la Renta will always be a legendary American designer and the epitome of American beauty to me.