Sarah Jessica Parker Pens Letter to Oscar de la Renta

There are few relationships as symbiotic as the one between actress and designer—illustrated beautifully for decades by Sarah Jessica Parker and Oscar de la Renta. The actress took to the Hollywood Reporter to pen a letter to honor her friend. The story begins as it should, with the dress, "I don't remember exactly the first time I met Mr. de la Renta. But I do remember the first dress I borrowed from him: from spring 2000, it was look 67. I had been asked to do an event for Sex and the City—something for HBO and [then CEO] Mr. Bewkes. I remember seeing this dress in the collection and went through Pat Field, the costume designer on the show, to see if she could help me borrow it. And I remember the first time I was invited to Mr. de la Renta's office and asked if he might build a dress for me for the 2000 Emmys. It turned out to be a pink dress with a feathered skirt that people had a lot of opinions about—mostly because I tied a big piece of tulle on my arm."

Parker lends insight into how their friendship evolved, "I can't remember how I had the courage to be friends with him—he was so otherworldly in a way. I don't know if he ever really watched Sex and the City, but I'm certain he was aware of the show because he made a dress for a scene later. Misha's [Mikhail Baryshnikov] character gave Carrie an Oscar de la Renta dress as a gift; it was a huge deal for Carrie to wear an Oscar de la Renta dress. That was a wonderful confluence of events because Misha and Mr. de la Renta had spent lots of time together in the Dominican Republic and had houses near each other. We all were friends."

She discusses in depth the Met Gala dress de la Renta created for her this past year, "It was really, really fun and thrilling to wear that gown that night. The point of the signature, and doing it in scarlet instead of his traditional navy, was to honor him—to scream it from the rooftop without opening my mouth. This is a man who spent the last 50 years building dresses. He's singular. And that night I wanted to say thank you and pay tribute to him and convey my gratitude for his work and for the personal relationship he allowed me to have with him."

The actress concludes on a personal note, "When someone passes who's led a wonderfully long life, you hear the news and immediately think of his beloved wife and friends and, in this case, all those who work in his studio. The reality of his absence means a momentous shift. There are wonderfully talented designers, emerging and upperclassmen, but he really was singular, and he has left a vacuum. Others will come along and will eventually make ball gowns with pockets in them—with stripes and polka dots, garden party gowns. But nobody is meant to fill the void. They can't. All I can think today is, "That's it. That's done, that extraordinary moment in time that he created." When I think about the last 10 or 15 years and the way he figured out how to marry his rock-hard foundation of the world of socialites and Nancy Reagans with a different generation—it's wildly impressive."

Before ending on a lovely one..."It also needs to be said that there was no one more handsome."