Fashion Designers: O

The fashion designer directory in this section is set up in alphabetical order, and the designers are listed by their first name. On this page you will find designers whose first name starts with the letter O — two designers, two definitions of elegance: the man who dressed Jacqueline Kennedy, and the Dominican-born couturier who dressed a line of first ladies after her. Use the directory list directly below to reach each designer's guide pages.

This section does not contain every fashion designer in the world. The designers here are some of the more famous ones, selected because they are believed to be the developers of famous brands; other clothing designers may be better, but these are the names this letter of the directory follows. Additional designers can be found in the Designer Directory, linked in the references.

Illustrative image created for this guide — an artistic impression, not this designer's own garments.

The O Designers at a Glance

Two designers carry this letter, and each has a series in this guide. Oleg Cassini (1913–2006), born in Paris to Russian and Italian parents and raised in Italy, emigrated to the United States in 1936, worked as a Hollywood costume designer, and in 1961 became Jacqueline Kennedy's exclusive designer — the pillbox hat and the clean A-line of the 'Jackie look' are his. Oscar de la Renta (1932–2014), born in the Dominican Republic, trained in Madrid and with Balenciaga and Lanvin in Paris before founding his New York house in 1965; his romantic evening dresses dressed first ladies and film stars for five decades. Each is linked from the directory list at the top of this page to their guide pages.

How This Directory Works

Listing designers by first name is this directory's standing convention, and the O letter is its most polished page: two designers whose working lives overlapped in the same New York, both defined by dressing women for public occasions at the highest level. A reader following a name rather than a movement finds both filed here, each leading to a full series of guide pages regardless of the route in.

Every letter of the alphabet has a list page like this one, linked in the directory list and in the references below, so the full directory can be browsed letter by letter. For the complete designer directory — including designers filed under other conventions — the Designer Directory and the designers-by-name index are linked in the references as well.