Oscar de la Renta, 82, fashion designer

Oscar de la Renta, 82, the Dominican-born fashion designer who reshaped the public image of first ladies, society muses, and red-carpet regulars with grand evening wear that celebrated Latin sensuality, European refinement, and American versatility, died Monday at his home in Kent, Conn.

A family representative answering the phone at his home confirmed the death but did not provide further details. He revealed in 2011 that he'd had a bout with cancer that year.

An astute businessman with an eye for vibrant color, Mr. de la Renta spent a half-century polishing his eponymous label into a global empire that sold perfume, accessories, furniture, and, above all, elegant clothing.

During decades of prominence on New York's fashion nexus - Seventh Avenue - he asserted himself as a creative entrepreneur and vivacious society player who gained access to the nation's most esteemed women and an invitation to define how the public saw them.

He was the first Latino to be accepted into the exclusive ranks of Parisian fashion houses. Later, as a U.S. citizen, he became the first American to design for a French couture house. All the while, Mr. de la Renta was building a brand that, in exclusive circles and in small-town bridal salons alike, was known by one word: Oscar.

His exuberant frocks won the trust of customers and he set formal standards for women of taste. He gave them - no matter their age or shape - the confidence to be eye-catching. "I love all his clothes because of his sense of color," Nancy Kissinger, wife of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, said in a 2002 pictorial biography of the designer.

Mr. de la Renta, whose dresses cost many thousands of dollars, was the master of entrance-making looks. Manhattan doyennes, Hollywood stars, and Washington figures sought out his label. He designed then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's coral swearing-in ensemble in 1997, first lady Laura Bush's twinkling beaded inaugural gown in 2005, and senatorial spouse Cindy McCain's golden full-skirted dress for the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Valerie Steele, a historian at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, saw Mr. de la Renta's couture influence in his bright combinations and full skirts and sleeves. "He's a really good colorist," and his clothes project "a European sense of decorum, a magnificence," she said.

Mr. de la Renta was born in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, on July 22, 1932. His father, who had come from Puerto Rico, owned an insurance business and expected his only son to follow him into the family trade. But his mother and six sisters lavished the boy with attention; and the family priest, a Spaniard, encouraged his aesthetic interests and bought him a set of paints. Against his father's inclination, Mr. de la Renta enrolled in art school.

After his mother's death, the 18-year-old embarked on a European adventure that began in the salons of Madrid, where he had introductions. Though interested in abstract painting, he sketched a gown that caught the eye of the wife of the U.S. ambassador to Spain, John Lodge. She commissioned a gown for their debutante daughter, Beatrice, who wore it on the cover of Life magazine.

Mr. de la Renta set aside his brushes and proceeded to fashion design jobs at Balenciaga and Lanvin-Castillo, first in Madrid, then in Paris.

Amid his growing fortunes was a personal tragedy. In 1983, his wife, Francoise, died of breast cancer. A year later, Mr. de la Renta was moved by the story of an abandoned infant being cared for at the orphanage he supported in the Dominican Republic. He adopted the boy, Moises. In 1989, Mr. de la Renta married Annette Reed. Besides his wife, survivors include his son and three stepchildren.