Oscar de la Renta, Legendary Fashion Designer, Dies at 82

Legendary fashion designer Oscar de la Renta died on Monday at the age of 82.

The cause of death was complications from cancer, his wife confirmed to The New York Times.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Annette de la Renta. The cause was complications from cancer. Though ill with cancer intermittently for close to eight years, Mr. de la Renta was resilient.

De la Renta had been diagnosed with cancer during in 2006.

He was born, Óscar Arístides de la Renta Fiallo, July 22, 1932, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. trained by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Antonio del Castillo; he became internationally known in the 1960s as one of the couturiers to dress Jacqueline Kennedy.

At the age of 18 he left the Dominican Republic to study painting in Madrid, Spain, but decided instead to pursue fashion design. He eventually worked as an apprentice to Cristobal Balenciaga, a Spanish Basque fashion designer and the founder of the Balenciaga fashion house.

De la Renta was married twice. His first wife, Françoise de Langlade, was a former editor of French Vogue. She died of bone cancer in 1983. The couple had been married for 16 years. The designer adopted a son soon after his first wife's death and married socialite Annette Engelhard Reed in 1989.