Vogue Editor Anna Wintour Speaks Out About Friend Oscar De La Renta In A Touching Essay

The editor-in-chief of American Vogue is known by the world for her friendships with top designers like Oscar de La Renta. And with his death, the fashion icon pens an essay about her friendship and love for the late designer, who died of cancer Monday, Oct. 20.

"He told me he felt he had had the most amazing life and he was not afraid. This strength must have been with him in the hospital last week when he made the decision to turn off treatment; it was not the quality of life he wanted," Wintour shared in an essay for Vogue.

The fashion designer was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. The New York Times reported this month that his cancer was "precarious" and, at a women's wear show in September, he looked "frail."

Although the fashion designer is known for dressing the most famous faces in the world, including Jackie Kennedy, his most recent moment came during George Clooney's wedding to Amal Alamuddin, who wore a dress made by him.

Wintour goes on to say, "And then, last weekend, [my daughter] Bee and I went up to Kent to see him. He could no longer move, so we went out and took pictures on his iPad for him to see and ate a chicken sandwich with [his wife] Annette and Janet, his extraordinary nurse. His last words to me were 'I love you,' and I said 'I love you' back."

De la Renta is no stranger to Vogue editors, as the designer became the third husband of Francoise de Langlade, an editor-in-chief of French Vogue. In 1989, he married Annette Engelhard.

Wintour concludes her essay about her friend regarding his deep love for friendship:

"He always said accept your friends for who they are, not for who you want them to be. Oscar was everything you could want a friend to be. Annette was his perfect partner ... She slept on a cot in the hospital every night he was there. Theirs was the greatest, most life-enhancing love affair. Last week in the hospital he said that she never wears the beautiful jewelry he gave her, and she said simply, 'I have you.'"