Karlie Kloss on Oscar de la Renta: "He Made Me the Woman I Am Today"

Model Karlie Kloss was just 15 when she met Oscar de la Renta. Now, in the wake of his passing, she looks back on everything she learned from the legendary designer.

Model Karlie Kloss was just 15 when she met Oscar de la Renta. Now, in the wake of his passing, she looks back on everything she learned from the legendary designer.

Heavenly Creation "There was always color and joy in Oscar's work," says Kloss, here in the gown she wore in the late designer's final runway show.

Oscar was my mentor and friend—an honorary grandfather, if you will. I grew up with him in this industry. When he died, I felt loss and grief, but I also felt gratitude, tremendous gratitude, to have known and worked with him as closely as I did.

I met Oscar when I was just a teenager. It was my second season of doing shows, so I was still very fresh and it was all new. I remember walking into his atelier and being so wide-eyed; it was covered from wall to wall with trays of beautiful jewelry and gorgeous shoes and gowns. There were textures and fabrics I didn't know existed. Here I was, this American girl from the Midwest, standing in this house of elegance and luxury to the level of First Ladies. The technique and craft that went into creating an Oscar de la Renta dress was like that of a couture house. It was totally intimidating! I don't know what he saw in me; I was a kid playing dress-up in these elaborate, womanly gowns. But he saw something, because I walked in nearly every one of his shows from that point on.

At Oscar's atelier everyone was like family—that's the way he created it. He treated each and every person with such respect and love. I got to know every seamstress, every tailor. When I would come in for a fitting before a show, everyone was running around him, crazy and frantic. And Oscar was just calm, cool, collected, sitting in his chair. He genuinely loved his craft and was very much at home there. He was involved in every detail of the design process. Working for Oscar and being in his studio, you could tell it's where he breathed. He was a gentleman in a way that is of another era. He almost always wore a tie. You would never catch Oscar in a T-shirt and jeans. Never. Forget it! He was always composed and elegant.

Oscar adored, respected, and celebrated women—and made them feel beautiful. We bonded over dance. He was a lover of dance, and I had classical ballet training. That was one of the first things he noticed about me. He saw the runway as a stage to perform on. It wasn't just walking when you were on an Oscar runway. You were breathing life into the clothes and becoming the woman he designed for—a woman who is unbelievably elegant, poised, intelligent, confident, powerful.

Before a show he would always grab my hand and say, "Karlie, you are beautiful." That was everything. Nobody does that! It doesn't matter if you're a model about to go on the runway or just any woman, somebody grabbing your hands and looking you in the eyes like you're the only person in the world? He made you feel special. I'd go in for fittings and stay longer than I was meant to, trying on the whole collection.

Kloss with de la Renta at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute gala last May

For the past several years, I would open or close his show, and as it got harder for him to walk, he started bringing me out with him when he took his bow. He would really hold on to me when we did that walk. It was an unbelievable honor, and every season it was our thing. Looking back, I realize he was getting frailer. But in my mind, I always saw this tan, suave man.

I remember him saying once that what he finds beautiful is confidence and kindness in the same person. He saw that in me before I realized it in myself. When he would quiet the room, turn on the music, and have me walk for him, I exuded the essence of the Oscar woman.

I certainly aspired to. He gave me a gold silk scarf once, and I wore that scarf like it was a ball gown. You put on Oscar de la Renta, and it makes you stand taller and feel more graceful. There was another time when I was still in high school and we were shooting his campaign. I had homecoming the next day, and he let me take the gown from the campaign to wear to my school dance. I felt absolutely beautiful!

But that was just Oscar: He was such a giving person. He did a lot of philanthropic work in the Dominican Republic, including opening an orphanage there. To him, everyone was equal.

I attended the Met Gala with Oscar just eight months ago. That night at the dinner, I had one of the most heartfelt conversations with him that I've ever had with anyone. He told me how he fell in love with his wife, Annette, and he told me about his first wife, who had died of cancer 30 years before. The most important thing in life, he said that night, is to love and be loved, and to do what you love. For me, it was so inspiring to see someone at 81, still so happy going to work.

I wish I could have spent much more time with him, but his spirit will be with me for the rest of my life. He treated me as his muse and friend. And that empowered me to think of myself as more than just a model wearing the clothes. With Oscar, I thought of myself as a part of the clothes, as giving them air, life, energy, character, spirit. The fact that he respected me doing my job helped me respect me doing my job. His support very much helped me become who I am, professionally and personally. He helped me realize the beauty and power in being an intelligent, elegant, graceful woman. When I first met him, I pretended to play that woman in his shows, but I've since realized that that's the woman I, Karlie, want to be every day.

—as told to Jane Keltner de Valle