Sarah Jessica Parker: A Special Tribute to Oscar de la Renta

In an interview with Pret-a-Reporter, Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker shares her experiences with the late fashion icon, Oscar de la Renta.

"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 describes de la Renta as "otherworldly" and emphasizes the fact that she and fellow Sex and the City co-star Mikhail Baryshnikov were friends with the multi-talented designer. "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 [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."

Parker wore countless Oscar de la Renta dresses, fresh off the runway - for the Emmys, the Met Ball, for her 40th birthday at the Plaza. When Fashion's Night Out started happening in 2009, she spent those nights with de la Renta in his store on Madison.

"With the amazing Met Ball gown this year, I was involved in every step. Initially, when Anna Wintour asked if I might co-chair the evening - which would honor the work of the late couturier Charles James - with Anna and Mr. de la Renta also as co-chairs, I immediately thought that I wanted to ask him to make me a dress. I told the team about colors I wanted to work with and said, 'What I would really love to do is have his well-known signature in embroidery on the back of the dress in scarlet.' I was nervous to ask [de la Renta] - I expected that he might be modest and say no, no, no. But he thought about it and said yes the next day."

"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."

Parker is quite grateful for having had the honor of sharing a friendship with de la Renta. Now that he is gone, she knows no one is meant to fill the void.

"All I can think today is, 'That's it. That's done, that extraordinary moment in time that he created.' The great news is, we all got so much out of knowing him. Thank goodness for all the time we did have. It's nice not to have regret - 'I wish I'd met him!' He gave so much, and I think everybody who had the chance to be on the receiving end appreciated him. It also needs to be said that there was no one more handsome.

This story appears in the October 31 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.