“I’m not interested in shock tactics. I just want to make beautiful clothes,” Oscar de la Renta famously said in 1963. For more than five decades, his commitment to feminine elegance made the designer an unwavering favorite not only among First Ladies but also on red carpets. “His clothes have been to more awards shows than Meryl Streep,” Michael Bloomberg joked when presenting the designer with a Couture Council lifetime achievement award in 2012 — a dramatic understatement. In fact, it’s hard to think of an A-list actress he didn’t dress. Over the years, everyone from Candice Bergen to Sandra Bullock, Scarlett Johansson, Kerry Washington, and Amy Adams has worn his gowns proudly on the red carpet. This spring, Sarah Jessica Parker took her long-standing devotion to the designer even further, when she asked him to embroider his signature on the train of her black-and-white Met Gala gown. “It was my idea,” she told Vanity Fair. “He would never in a million years have done it, he’s far too modest.”
Click through the slideshow for a look back at de la Renta’s most iconic red-carpet gowns, including Nicole Kidman, Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, and many, many more.
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Sarah Jessica Parker At the 2014 Met Costume Gala.
Elle Fanning At the 2012 British Independent Film Awards.
Photo: 2012 Mike Marsland
Amy Adams At the 2013 Oscars.
Photo: 2013 AFP
Kerry Washington At the 2013 NAACP Awards.
Photo: 2013 Albert L. Ortega
Lupita Nyong'o At the 2014 White House Correspondents' Dinner.
Photo: 2014 Getty Images
Nicole Kidman At the Omega Gala "La Nuit Enchantee" in Vienna, 2013.
Photo: 2013 Getty Images
Penelope Cruz At the 2005 Oscars.
Photo: 2005 Getty Images
Jessica Chastain At the opening ceremony of the 2014 Deauville American Film Festival.
Photo: 2014 Foc Kan
Scarlett Johansson At the Berlin Film Festival screening of The Other Boleyn Girl, 2008.
Photo: 2008 AFP
Blake Lively At the Berlin Film Festival premiere of The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, 2009.
Photo: 2009 AFP
Candice Bergen At the 1999 Oscars.
Photo: Tammie Arroyo
Glenn Close At the 2004 Emmys.
Photo: 2004 Getty Images
Iman At the "So De La Renta" Fragrance Launch Party, at the Copacabana, 1997.
Photo: 1997/Daily News, L.P. (New York)
Lauren Santo Domingo At the 2014 Met Costume Gala.
Photo: BFA NYC
Tina Fey At the 2011 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Photo: 2011 Getty Images
Emma Watson At the New York premiere of Noah, 2014.
Photo: 2014 Getty Images
Mischa Barton At the 2005 Emmys.
Photo: 2005 Getty Images
Cameron Diaz At the 2010 Oscars.
Photo: 2010 Steve Granitz
Kerry Washington At the premiere of Synecdoche, New York at the Cannes Film Festival, 2008.
Photo: 2008 Getty Images
Scarlett Johansson At the Los Angeles premiere of He's Just Not That Into You, 2009.
Photo: 2009 Lester Cohen
Sandra Bullock At the 2004 Oscars
Jessica Biel At the 2007 Oscars.
Michelle Williams At the 2011 National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Gala in New York
Photo: 2011 Getty Images
Lea Michele At the 2011 Golden Globes.
Photo: 2011 Getty Images
Cheryl Cole, Rihanna At the 2011 BRIT Awards.
Photo: 2011 Dave M. Benett
Fan Bingbing At the Cannes Film Festival premiere of The Tree of Life, 2011.
Photo: 2011 Getty Images
Kerry Washington At the Los Angeles premiere of I Think I Love My Wife, 2007.
Evan Rachel Wood At the 2004 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Freida Pinto At the Cannes Film Festival premiere of The Horseman, 2014.
Photo: 2014 Mike Marsland
Michelle Williams At the AFI Fest screening of My Week With Marilyn, 2011.
Photo: 2011 Jon Kopaloff
Karlie Kloss At the 2014 Met Costume Gala.
Photo: 2014 Rabbani and Solimene Photography
Allison Williams At the 2012 Emmys.
Photo: 2012 Jeff Vespa
Jennifer Hudson At the 2007 Oscars.
Photo: 2007 AFP
Emily Blunt At the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Photo: 2012 Donato Sardella
Zooey Deschanel At the 2013 Golden Globes.
Photo: 2013 Christopher Polk/NBC
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