Here's what to know. All in the de la Renta family: from left, Alex Bolen, Eliza Bolen, Oscar de la Renta, and Moises de la Renta. The brand quickly became a fixture on red carpets, worn by such sought-after stars as Sarah Jessica Parker, Selena Gomez and Lupita Nyong’o. Jan. 21, 2019 Alex Bolen, the chief executive of Oscar de la Renta, planned to have his new store in Paris open around this week, just in time for the couture shows. As a young man, he traveled to Spain with dreams of becoming an artist. Our industry is obsessed with the pursuit of younger customers. The occasion marked Peter Copping's one-year anniversary on the Oscar de la Renta runway. Amazon is launching Luxury stores and its first brand is storied American fashion house Oscar de la Renta. We hadn’t really felt that way in a long time.” And home, after all, is not a building, but a feeling. I, we, our family want to hire people who are outstanding at their jobs and let them do their jobs. 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the Oscar de la Renta brand. I can tell you what I perceive. Oscar de la Renta is handing over the chief executive title to his son-in-law, Alex Bolen, to allow the designer more time in the design studio. I thought, I'm going to jump out of a window if we don't find a way to bring this to our business. We don't want to be thought of as their mom's, or grand mom's brand, but I'm not sure we're designing with 20-somethings first and foremost in mind. Q&A With Alex Bolen, CEO, Oscar de la Renta. Amazon said Tuesday it is getting into luxury fashion, starting with a collection by the Oscar de la Renta label, whose founder famously dressed first ladies. What is your working relationship like with Peter? Who is the Oscar de la Renta customer today? It was years ago now. Straw hats, reminiscent of those worn by Coco Chanel, are de rigueur. On a Friday afternoon in New York City near Bryant park, Oscar de la Renta CEO Alex Bolen invited us to his office, which is home to the business team, the manufacturing and design departments, and personnel for the esteemed fashion house. But if we don't figure out the right way to do them we won't do them. Oscar was deeply concerned with ensuring a smooth transition, fearing the slide into irrelevancy suffered by Blass and Halston after their founders’ deaths. Following boarding school Bolen enrolled at Brown University, where he majored in Russian Studies and minored in Economics. We have two factories in Italy and two factories here in the U.S., so those currency costs affect how and where we do production. “I was not aware of the extent of their maturity,” he admits. It requires adapting to a shifting social context — the cocktail dress may have been Oscar’s bread and butter, but in an increasingly casual world that no longer calls for them, the label has needed to adjust. 4. Jason Wu showed them last week, Oscar showed them today, and we'll definitely see them come the Spring 2011 shows. That’s a very attractive number, as Oscar de la Renta CEO Alex Bolen makes clear: “I would guess that somewhere near 100% of our existing customers are on Amazon and a … We’re protecting that client who loves the brand and has bought so many clothes throughout the years — decades, for some. Alex Bolen, the chief executive of Oscar de la Renta, planned to have his new store in Paris open around this week, just in time for the couture shows. In July 2004, at just 36 years old, Bolen was named CEO of the Oscar de la Renta fashion house. A disciple of Cristóbal Balenciaga, Oscar de la Renta was much admired for his technique -- and adored for his kindly charm. This trend is sure to carry on through September. The pair has contributed hugely to the brand since Kim joined in 2003 while in the midst of completing her BFA in Fashion Design at the Pratt Institute. In fact, as the numbers roll in from the holiday season and for the fourth … I think that Peter joined our company with his own loyal following, and so he's brought those into the mix. We want to include as many people who are fans of our aesthetic. We have built a series of retail stores around the world, and expanded our geographic footprint both through retail and wholesale. The first of the fireside chats was hosted in New York on Wednesday night at Samsung 837 featuring Oscar de la Renta CEO Alex Bolen, designer Tory … The stronger dollar meant that European tourists that came to the U.S. didn't shop this year. Oscar de la Renta was born in the Dominican Republic. That seemed to me an opportunity, and it has been. And for the company, it signalled the beginning of a new chapter after a rudderless few seasons. Fabrics that used to need to be done by hand in Italy, we can now work with laser printing. In 2004, somewhere between 96 and 100 percent of our business was U.S.-oriented, despite the fact that Oscar's name was known around the world. Is that still something you think about doing, now that Peter Copping is on board? It's difficult for me to speak intelligently on what it's like to be part of a big conglomerate, because I don't really know. “Oscar de la Renta is thrilled to partner with Amazon for the launch of Luxury Stores,” stated Alex Bolen, CEO of Oscar de la Renta. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an independent, family-run luxury business vs. being part of a big conglomerate like, say, Kering? Oscar was directly involved in bringing Copping aboard, courting him while he held the position of creative director at Nina Ricci. De la Renta's designs have been worn by a diverse group of distinguished women and celebrities. Read more: Peter Copping Departs Oscar De La Renta. How has that investment played out for you? Historically we've not had much business there, but this is a good time for us to march ahead. I think that Peter also thinks about menswear a lot. But, for both of us, it turned into a much longer engagement.” Garcia joined the company in 2009, as an intern reporting to Kim, after completing a degree in architecture at Notre Dame at his family’s behest. I would say our expansion internationally, and to a lesser degree our expansion in the U.S. Lindsey Wixson is most popular model of the season. And it was, for Oscar, a great business model. It is of course a bit different than with Oscar and me because Oscar was [my wife] Eliza's stepfather. Oscar de la Renta was born in the Dominican Republic in 1932 and left the Caribbean when he was 18 to study painting in Madrid. Just before Oscar passed away in October of 2014, British designer Peter Copping was named his successor, and Kim and Garcia — by then design director and senior designer, respectively — left the company shortly thereafter. We could bring a more elevated approach to shapewear in our own product line. Sarah Jessica Parker with Oscar de la Renta in 2005. “I would guess that somewhere near 100% of our existing customers are on Amazon and a huge percentage of those are Prime members,” Alex Bolen, CEO of Oscar de la Renta, told Vogue. The 48th annual Oscar de la Renta fashion show and luncheon was presented by Saks Fifth Avenue at Lake Tahoe on Saturday, Aug. 5, to a sold-out crowd of 650, raising a record $1.1 million to benefit the League to Save Lake Tahoe.. Sleepwear and intimate apparel are other areas where our brand's aesthetic could make some sense. I'm not a customer for our product, but I find that shopping, whatever it's for, can be intimidating and we don't want to do that. The years Kim and Garcia spent under Oscar’s tutelage left them amply prepared to launch a label with a strong commercial foundation. It's not because we make off-the-charts margins, but look, we put a lot of work into what we do, to understand that comes with understanding of [clothes]. So perhaps in the grand scheme of rings available in the world, at $100, it's still expensive, but that's a really low price point relative to the product line. In 2015 we had a lot going on in the world that created cross-currents in our business. [The key is to find] ways to include more people that are authentic and appropriate to our brand. Our business today is roughly 60/40 North America to the rest of the world. Alex Bolen has been CEO of Oscar de la Renta since mid-2004. I hope we can take the opportunity to explain what it's all about, and hopefully make them fans of our brand when they're in our stores. Oscar de la Renta is now run by the late designer’s son-in-law, Alex Bolen, who defended the Amazon move in an interview with Vogue. Before his father-in-law, the late Oscar de la Renta, appointed him CEO of his namesake company in the summer of 2004, Bolen had spent 14 years on Wall Street. While Copping was helming Oscar de la Renta, Kim and Garcia were busy building Monse, one of New York’s buzziest young labels. I never got to see you work directly with Oscar, but I read that you two were quite jokey and you were often jumping in to make design suggestions. For the duo, it marked a triumphant return to the place that they began their careers in fashion. That is what we're trying to do with our product. As did a short taupe dress with an exaggerated peplum attached. The impact of oil prices is hard to underestimate in terms of customer psychology... some of our customers make a living from oil, so when oil prices fall, they have less disposable income. I'm not so sure. It falls, now, to Kim and Garcia to shepherd it into a new era, and update its offerings in a way that remains true to its history. The pair has contributed hugely to the brand since Kim joined in 2003 while in the midst of completing her BFA in Fashion Design at the Pratt Institute. The Oscar de la Renta customer is a woman who appreciates well-made, feminine product, who is very dressed up at all times in her life, day and evening, wants to look great, wants to feel great. How come? And while it appeared to outsiders that Monse emerged from thin air, that, of course, was not the case. Alex Bolen, while not a direct relative of Oscar de la Renta, also stressed the community and family atmosphere that exists within ODLR. We'll get there. The fluctuations of currency are a major driver. The U.S. business is a very mature business, but it continues to grow. In our stores, the ability to have a global inventory system, so that if someone in [our] Madison Avenue [location] is looking to buy a blue dress that's not there, in a second we can find where it is in the world and how we get it to her. Likewise in the sample room, pattern-grading can now be done on a computer. In 2004, our business was organized in a kind of designer 1990s licensing model, where the high-end runway product was not the driver of the business, but was very much a promotional tool to drive a lot of very lucrative licenses. It’s also its first year without its beloved namesake, who passed away last October. Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images. “The way that we’re living and breathing these days feels like we’re moving in the right direction. Places like Japan, where we have typically not had business, are now generating important business. When Oscar de la Renta CEO Alex Bolen refers to Kim and Garcia as part of the family, he is not doling out platitudes. I am envious of their ability to retain talent, because they have many brands under their umbrella, and when somebody is talented and is unsatisfied at Brand A, they can offer them an opportunity to work at Brand B, and I can't do that. We are now developing prototypes in our jewelry business using 3-D printers. Luxury likes to talk about exclusivity, but that's never been the Oscar de la Renta approach. Oscar de la Renta CEO Alex Bolen discusses the state of the label, emerging markets, managing growth, and the importance of mentorship. With his own label, founded in 1965, he established a sartorial blueprint for a certain sort of aspirational woman — a woman for whom dressing up was de rigueur, for whom cocktail dresses were more than a once-yearly occasion. What kind of environment do you want your stores to have? It's a way we can compete with some of our larger peers. He said that the company will never have a … In your first interview as CEO you said you were considering menswear. She's been around for a while now, but Lindsey Wixson is the star of the Resort shows. Alex Bolen, CEO de Oscar de la Renta, confesó que no se imaginaba cómo una exposición podría cumplir la ambición de revelar la humanidad del diseñador detrás de los icónicos vestidos: “Cuando María Amalia [León de Jorge, presidenta de la Fundación Eduardo León Jimenes] pensó por primera vez en esto, Oscar todavía estaba vivo. His son-in-law Alex Bolen operates as Chief Executive Officer, and step-daughter Eliza Bolen serves as Vice President of Licensing, at Oscar de … It is no exaggeration to suggest that Oscar de la Renta was one of the most important figures in 20th century American fashion — and one of its most beloved, too. But that's not the case for Oscar — you've said before the company's staple is $4,000 cocktail dresses. What is currently driving company growth? A dramatic blue gown leads the finale at Oscar de la Renta's spring 2016 show. I think about it a lot. [former SVP of Communications] Erika [Bearman]. So we had to reorient things. Whether it was a customer for the red carpet or the customer on a Tuesday buying a skirt on Madison Avenue, he really wanted to solve a problem, to see what she needed. For some extra pocket change, he sketched dresses for local fashion houses. The Breton stripe may feel burned, but de la Renta's not letting go just yet. “I think very much about how our organisation is living and breathing every day,” he continues. Alex Bolen Chief Executive Officer at Oscar de la Renta Greater New York City Area Bolen believes that Oscar de la Renta’s e-commerce store will eventually become the brand’s biggest store in terms of sales. Says Garcia: “It’s very important to have an evolution, not a revolution, as people say. It's not as if we haven't tried in accessories, but there was more authenticity, more brand logic to pursuing women's ready-to-wear. “I would guess that somewhere near 100% of our existing customers are on Amazon and a huge percentage of those are Prime members,” Alex Bolen, … One other advantage of being a medium-sized business, or independent company, is that we can move more quickly. Three years after the passing of its founder and namesake, the house of Oscar de la Renta has achieved a delicate parity: courting a new, more casual customer while continuing to outfit the elegant women he dressed for decades. A store in Paris, and possibly a menswear line. “I was not a boss, so to speak, when I was at Oscar,” Garcia explains. Oscar de la Renta is handing over the chief executive title to his son-in-law, Alex Bolen, to allow the designer more time in the design studio. By working with iconic partners like Oscar de la Renta, we’re giving these younger consumers the opportunity to buy the styles they’ve always wanted in a responsible way,” said Silvija Martincevic, Chief Commercial Officer at Affirm. Has the Oscar customer changed since Peter Copping joined the company? Ball gowns really are back. These prominent placements were partly the result of relationships with A-list stylists Garcia cultivated during his early years at Oscar de la Renta. 1. The third-to-last look, a kelly green ball gown, felt really modern, despite it's old-fashioned proportions. It’s also its first year without its beloved namesake, who passed away last October. Kim and Garcia have found themselves right back where they belong. I would say that with regards to social media in particular, that reflected a lot of [former SVP of Communications] Erika [Bearman]'s enthusiasm for that project. Speaking with Kim and Garcia, it’s clear that they feel a sense of responsibility for Oscar de la Renta’s legacy — the kind of deep connection that can only develop organically. That's going to come from an accessories offering. Can you talk to me a little bit about your red carpet strategy. If you don't think Paris is going to remain an important world fashion capital, you should be in a different business. Although he had already mastered the complexities of high finance, this was a whole new ballgame in an industry he found untenable. We do still aspire to having a robust accessories business — shoes, bags, those are works in progress. Oscar and I had a bit of an ongoing comedy show, and I think that with Peter, we have a fantastic working relationship — we talk daily, we go over general things, what's happening with our lives in New York City. Photo: Oscar de la Renta By his own admission, Alex Bolen "never meant to become a … Eliza Reed, a daughter of Annette de la Renta and Samuel P. Reed, both of New York, was married yesterday to Alexander Lytton Bolen, the son of Barclay and Richard J. Bolen … They have a lifestyle that lends itself to dressing the way that we build a collection of clothes. We are a family business, and we are very non-bureaucratic. I object to the word exclusive, because on some level it means to exclude. “La presencia y contribución de Alex Bolen, como CEO en Oscar de la Renta, es enorme ya que su visión global llena de retos y nuevos mercados a la marca”. The fabrics we use, the way we cut, the techniques, there is a certain sophistication — a customer has to have tried other things to understand why we charge the prices we charge. The business has really been dramatically reoriented. I think that when it becomes transactional in nature, I'm not sure what the point is. In 2004 our revenue was 100 percent wholesale, 0 percent retail, and now it's about 50/50. For example I'm trying hard to make a store in Paris right now. You became CEO of Oscar de la Renta in July 2004, when you were just 36, and the company was a $650-million business with no stores and quite a number of licenses. In the very near term, the next year or two, much of our growth is going to come from continued penetration of international markets. “I’ve learned, since I left and came back, how to manage a team, how to make everyone feel listened to, feel involved in the design, and feel excited every day. In the United States, de la Renta's name was as famous then as it is now, but the business has changed dramatically. “They are part of the DNA of this house,” says Bolen. Where is the company now compared to then? After Oscar passed away, I read some list that he was the seventh most elegant man in the world. How and when did you decide that Oscar de la Renta needed to be involved in ecommerce? In what other ways has technology changed the business, or the way things are done? Without great people, we won't have a great business, it's as simple as that. Alex Bolen has been CEO of Oscar de la Renta since mid-2004. Alex Bolen, CEO de Oscar de la Renta, confesó que no se imaginaba cómo una exposición podría cumplir la ambición de revelar la humanidad del diseñador detrás de los icónicos vestidos: “Cuando María Amalia [León de Jorge, presidenta de la Fundación Eduardo León Jimenes] pensó por primera vez en esto, Oscar todavía estaba vivo. I look at things a company like Spanx is doing. Photo: Michael Edwards O scar de la Renta is trying to eat his hamburger. Alex Bolen’s email address is a***@odlr.com What is Alex Bolen’s business email address? View Alex Bolen's business profile as Chief Executive Officer at Oscar de la Renta. How and when did you decide that Oscar de la Renta needed to be involved in ecommerce? I'm not sure we are so obsessed. We have some business plans that we are working on. When Oscar de la Renta CEO Alex Bolen refers to Kim and Garcia as part of the family, he is not doling out platitudes. For example, our fashion jewelry business, we offer earrings for $200, we offer rings in some cases for under $100. We still want to do that, I think it's a great way to communicate with new customers. Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images. In the absence of Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim—the Monse designers will make their Oscar de la Renta debut in February at the Fall ’17 shows—Alex Bolen, ODLR’s CEO, spoke to …