FALL/ WINTER 2000 Collections: Cynthia Rowley Calvin Klein Armani Versace Designer shoes Kenneth Cole Anna Sui De la Renta Valentino McQueen Gucci Chloe Prada Dolce & Gabbana Michael Kors Ralph Lauren Marc Jacobs

VIDEO CNN's Elsa Klensch talks with Oscar de la Renta about his fall/winter 2000 collection QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

Old World meets new age in de la Renta's fall line

June 30, 2000
Web posted at: 5:05 p.m. EDT (2105 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York designer Oscar de la Renta fuses Old World opulence with new age glamour in his fall/winter 2000 collection.

De la Renta, who was honored as the Womenswear Designer of the Year at the American Fashion Awards, augments many of his cold-weather outfits with luxurious leather and fur.

"What's interesting about the collection," de la Renta said, "is the mixture of the textures -- all the different things modern technology today allows -- so many furs (and) leathers.

"Today you can take leather, shape it, make it look like velvet . . . (and) turn them into palettes and make them into evening dresses."

The collection is primarily separates. De la Renta says that gives women the ability to mix and match, essentially becoming her own designer.

"Eighty percent of the collection is all separates. And that woman is going to come and buy one piece and then make it her own, and that's what makes fashion exciting today."

De la Renta also adopts ethnic influences in his embroideries and chunky jewelry. While that may be reminiscent of his '60s and '70s collections, don't call this collection retro.

"I hate retro," he said. "I hate nostalgia. But we look at history, and we look at things to get inspiration. The body hasn't changed for years, and so we go back and forth in doing things that perhaps we did at another time or somebody else did at another time.

"But you have to make them contemporary or it doesn't work."

CNN Style Correspondent Elsa Klensch contributed to this report.

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