THE DALLAS LOOK BY OSCAR DE LA RENTA

THE THING I CAN SAY about the Dallas woman is that she loves clothes, and dresses very, very well because of it. Generally, I don’t design by grouping women into regional categories. A good shape is popular all over. But I can say of the Dallas woman that she is a woman of the world, very smart, and very sophisticated. I love Dallas.

I love the cowboy, too. But I don’t like to see a sophisticated lady wearing jeans unless it is for outdoor or work purposes. There is a very sophisticated way to wear Western clothes, and they are nice, but only on certain occasions.

The woman who buys my clothes wants the perfection of fashion. She dresses well, and wants a wardrobe that will follow her moods and emotions. In my fall line, I drew inspiration from the mid-19th century Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and I call the theme “Hapsburg.” Do not be misled – the clothes are not costume-y, antique or ethnic in feeling; they are very up-to-date. But they carry a feeling of what the clothes then were like, of the accented colors of that time and the love of fabric.

I used a lot of woolens, silks, and tweeds for the fall. I like to combine a tweed jacket a silk blouse, and a velveteen skirt. On the day woolens, I have a lot of embroidering on jackets with silks and braiding. Details are much more defined, and very classic colors are used: all the shades of grey flannels and black. Ruby red is used to accent fire blue. I also use plums and browns. A most important point for these day-wear colors: They are the result or a mixture of textures.

For evening I used black, with beading to emphasize luxury, which is the keynote of my evening collection, and always appropriate for nightlife in Dallas.

Embroidered necklines, especially on jackets, are opulent and more complicated for evening, drawing the eye to a woman’s face, which is, of course, the real center of attention.