For decades Oscar de la Renta has basked in the international limelight, charming the glitterati and dazzling the elite. But the tall, brown-haired boy from the Dominican Republic-where days are absolutely crystalline and nights, with their symphonies of Caribbean bugs, are warm and peaceful-has always been more comfortable at home. And now that his native Santo Domingo has become crowded and chaotic, De la Renta has moved to his very own plantation in the country.
Nestled on 2,500 acres in a lush inland valley near Bayaguana, Dominican Republic, are rows and rows of De la Renta`s newest passion: orange trees. And perched atop a hill at the heart of the groves is the new casa De la Renta. This house, his second in the Dominican Republic, is a simple, Caribbean-inspired exposition of De la Renta refinement. It looks nothing like Texas, but watching De la Renta survey his groves from the porch is a moment straight out of the book ”Giant,” by Edna Ferber.
”You see the mahogany trees on that hill?” he says, pointing to the distant horizon. ”That`s how far it goes.”
There are rumors that he might be thinking of settling down full-time in the Dominican Republic and abandoning New York`s 7th Avenue. The 55-year-old designer denies it. ”I`ll probably never be permanently settled anywhere,”
he says.
For more than two years, Oscar-cum-farmer has been felling those dense stands of trees, clearing the land for the 300 acres he has planted so far.
”I thought it was just going to be a matter of putting some seeds in the ground,” he muses. ”I was wrong.”
The Dominican landscape in this part of the country is fertile, and flocks of white egrets float over lush tropical vegetation and endless fields of sugar cane. A far cry from the sprawling compound one might expect, the main house is surprisingly small: three bedrooms, a large kitchen (which betrays the gourment in De la Renta) and, in the tropical tradition, a wide veranda wrapping around the house.
In the heart of the Caribbean, where temperatures on winter days
”plummet” to 75 degrees, outdoor living is de rigueur. Every room in the house opens onto the bright yellow gallery and-as is the tradition-windows and doors are merely screened, keeping the exotic Caribbean bugs at bay while fresh warm air comes and goes.
A jewel of a home
There is no mistaking the architectural influence. It is profoundly Caribbean, not at all like De la Renta`s other home at Casa de Campo, the coastal resort half an hour away by helicopter. Here, in the sleepy hills, the new house shines like a bright yellow jewel set afloat on a sea of green. Even the interior walls are painted in brilliant hues. A simple bedroom is washed in turquoise and the tiled floor-terra-cotta and white elsewhere in the house- is done in turquoise and white.
They are the pristine colors of Caribbean towns, the bright blues, yellows and pinks of the tiny houses lined up along dirt roads.
The veranda is just as much a communal space as the living room inside, and considerably larger. Rustic rocking chairs face the groves and more formal mahogany chairs, like those inside, are clustered along the veranda. Designed after a chair De la Renta found in Provence, France, the mahogany chairs, like most of the furniture, are made here, in a workshop near the stables. There are touches of other places and another side of De la Renta-the massive wood table from the house in New York, the Orientalist art and what must be the only compact disc player for miles.
The stables are tucked away down by the plant nursery, set away from the house and hidden by a hill. There is a recently arrived brown and white pinto stallion De la Renta positively beams over.
A RANCHER`S NIRVANA
The spirit of the place is infectious, and De la Renta seems transported to something close to a rancher`s nirvana. As he discusses a new foal with one of the stablehands, he cuts a dashing figure as the wealthy landowner with his finger on the pulse of his farm-or what will become his farm once the crops come in.
At little more than 3 feet high, the trees on the 300 acres already planted aren`t much taller than the plants in the nursery. ”We are going to plant some passion fruit soon because you can harvest it in the first year,” he says. ”With oranges, you need to have a little more patience.
”I didn`t want to raise something like cattle, something that you kill and then eat,” he explains. ”We studied the land and could have done pineapple, but we finally decided on citrus.”
Although the trees will be fruiting soon, these first few crops are carefully controlled, and the trees cannot be fully harvested for the first five years. De la Renta is a rare breed in the Dominican Republic. Aside from the owners of two citrus groves nearby, few individuals have reinvested in Dominican farming on the scale he has. As he says, it has turned out to be much more than ”putting seeds in the ground.”
From the start, De la Renta has worked with an American citrus specialist named Donovan Brown to oversee the execution of his newest venture. ”Except for a few days a month, he`s here all the time, taking care of everything,”
De la Renta says.
With Dominican presidential awards to his credit and a familiar string of endless philanthropic endeavors, most notably his annual fund-raising efforts for Dominican orphanges such as Casa de Ninos, De la Renta has become the nation`s favorite native son. Between his outright generosity and his long association with Casa de Campo-he and his late wife Francoise were among the first to build a home at the elaborate resort-De la Renta can rightfully claim a hand in Dominican rejuvenation.
IN MILLION MILES AWAY
In some way, the orange groves also reflect his continuing dedication to his homeland. He employs roughly 100 people here and has not only invested in the land but in its people as well. There`s something special about this place, something in the way De la Renta`s brown eyes glitter as he walks along the clear tropical river that cuts through his land. Seventh Avenue is a million miles away, and the Oscar who works there is nowhere in sight.
As De la Renta refashions the land to make way for the orange groves, his efforts to maintain the forest have been continual. Small tropical trees have gone in along the river banks to prevent erosion, and although Dominican reforestation laws are strict, most of the cut mahogany has been officially allowed to find its way into the furniture in the main house.
As De la Renta says, ”They understand how much I`m doing here.”
He is here at least a couple of times a month. As the groves progress, he says he will be spending more time here and less at Casa de Campo.
Watching De la Renta pick his way gingerly across a mossy rock at river`s edge, there is every reason to believe he feels completely balanced in this landscape. He may be a new, slightly unfamiliar Oscar, but still an Oscar in his element.
There has been some speculation about his political ambitions, but De la Renta wholeheartedly denies them.
”Absolutely not,” he says. ”I like my role in the Dominican Republic-without any worries-and I don`t want to put myself into a political machine.”
So what does come next for him?
”Well,” he says, with what sounds suspiciously like a slight twinge of disappointment, ”I have to go back New York and design a collection.” –
