Reports: Fashion Icon Oscar De La Renta Dies After Long Cancer Fight

By Chris Hopkins / NPR

Published October 20, 2014 at 5:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 9 years ago.

Former first lady Laura Bush, left, talks in July about the dress her daughter Jenna Bush Hager wore to her 2008 wedding at the family's Crawford ranch, and the teal mother-of-the bride dress, right, that she wore the same day. The ensembles were among more than 60 featured in a retrospective on de la Renta's career that was shown at the George W. Bush Library and Museum.

Designer Oscar de la Renta takes a bow with models Karlie Kloss, left, and Daria Strokous, right, after his Spring 2015 collection was modeled Sept. 9 during Fashion Week in New York. De la Renta died on Oct. 20.

Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, 82, died Monday after a decade-long battle with cancer, The New York Times and other media outlets report. NPR has not independently confirmed the news.

The Times reports:

Become a KPBS sponsor

"Though ill with cancer intermittently for a decade, Mr. de la Renta was resilient. During that period, his business grew by 50 percent, to $150 million in sales, as his name became linked to celebrity events like the Oscars. Amy Adams, Sarah Jessica Parker and Penélope Cruz were among the stars who wore his dresses.

"Recently his biggest coup was to make the ivory tulle gown that Amal Alamuddin wore to wed George Clooney in Venice."

Vogue wrote a piece about Alamuddin's dress, which includes a photo of de la Renta at her final fitting.

The Washington Post notes that the Dominican-born de la Renta was a ground-breaker in the industry:

"He was the first Latino to be accepted into the exclusive ranks of Parisian fashion houses. Later as a U.S. citizen, he became the first American to design for a French couture house."

The fashion label's website was replaced with a static black-and-white image of the logo on Monday night, and celebrities on Twitter mourned his passing: