Jeanette Fleming Barr, Óscar Arístides Renta Fiallo

Place: Rocky Mount

Born: 1895

Death: 1965

Biography:

Jane Derby, born Jeanette Fleming Barr in Rocky Mount, Virginia in 1895, was an American fashion designer. She first worked as an apprentice designer before opening her own business in 1936 in New York. She later opened Jane Derby, Inc., in 1938, which she ran continuously until her death in 1965. She was one of the first fashion designers to show the short dinner dress and received the Winnie award of the Coty American Fashion Critics' Awards in 1951. She was married to Arthur Lawrence Derby from 1915 until his death in 1961, and in December 1964 remarried to Ross Cuthbert, a former Olympic ice hockey player and retired lieutenant colonel of the British Army. She had children, including a son, Arthur (1916-1944), who was killed in action in World War II. Oscar De la Renta, born Óscar Arístides Renta Fiallo in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 1932, was a Dominican fashion designer. He was trained by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Antonio del Castillo. De la Renta became internationally known in the 1960s as one of the couturiers who dressed Jacqueline Kennedy. He worked for Lanvin and Balmain. His eponymous fashion house has boutiques around the world, and is headquartered on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. He died in 2014.