Peter Copping was on vacation in Wales when he heard the sad news of Oscar de la Renta’s passing. Copping, who had recently relocated from Paris to New York, 140 crates of books in tow, to pursue a new role as creative director of the house, was stunned. All of a sudden, the house’s legacy lay in his hands. “Fashion moves quickly,” the designer tells Vogue in its June issue, “so you have to state your intentions from the word go. It couldn’t just be an homage.”
Copping had his work cut out for him as he prepared his well-received debut collection, with an approving audience that included Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss. For the piece, Hamish Bowles tracks Copping’s travels through Charleston and Savannah, meeting customers and taking in the recent de la Renta exhibit at the SCAD Museum of Art. “It’s beautiful to see everything together en masse,” the designer says after a walk-through. “As much as I knew it in the past, I’m still discovering the house of Oscar de la Renta. But just to see all of this is an incredible experience — it shows me what endless possibilities there are.”