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"View Slideshow\n\nAt Oscar de la Renta's beachside retreat in Punta Cana, in his native Dominican Republic, guests have \"total freedom,\" the revered fashion designer says. \"People do whatever they feel: golf, read, relax.\" But visitors\u2014who might include anyone from Barbara Walters to the Kissingers to the Clintons\u2014are required to sit together for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, where there are two rules. The first concerns conversation. \"Nothing of substance and nothing nice about anyone who's not there,\" De la Renta says with a devilish smile. The second rule, he explains, is to \"set the table and make it beautiful, but then don't pay any more attention to it.\"\n\nThat kind of matter-of-course elegance, carried off with seemingly effortless flair, is one of the designer's hallmarks, both in his personal style and in his chic, ultra-feminine fashions. And it certainly defines his debut collection of tabletop and entertaining accessories, launching in February at Oscar de la Renta boutiques and at Bloomingdale's stores. Conceived in tandem with decorator Miles Redd, who serves as creative director of De la Renta's home-furnishings lines, the 100-plus pieces are infused with the spirit of the idyllic Punta Cana lifestyle.\n\nIn addition to blue-and-white linens and stoneware dishes hand-painted with splashes of watery hues, the collection includes bubble glasses etched with hearts (a favorite De la Renta motif); fish-figurine bottle openers and stoppers; hurricane lanterns; Champagne buckets; flatware with carved handles; silver-plate bowls lined in bright enamels; teak-and\u2013silver-plate saltcellars with horn spoons; julep cups; and luxe playing cards, dominoes, and backgammon sets\u2014since no evening on the island would be complete without games.\n\nThe designs occasionally incorporate references to De la Renta's fashions. Says Redd, \"We looked at what he does with his clothes and integrated that aesthetic into this collection.\" So you'll find resin trays finished to mimic the dip-dye technique De la Renta has perfected over the years (he began his own label in 1965) and has used to beautiful effect on silk dresses. There are stoneware plates with an enlarged print De la Renta calls \"dot-and-dash,\" taken from a '70s dress. And a floral pattern from a line of past resortwear embellishes picture frames.\n\nAmong the most striking\u2014and versatile\u2014pieces are the dishes hand-painted with broad, graceful blue strokes. \"As much as we love a lot of color, we wanted to do something that could easily be mixed with someone's existing table settings,\" says Redd during a visit to the company's sun-drenched off ices high above Manhattan's Bryant Park. And this particular design has its origins in De la Renta's personal travels. \"There's a funny story there,\" De la Renta says. \"I was in Japan at a potter's where you could make your own plates, and a Japanese monk was doing the most incredibly beautiful calligraphy. I thought to myself, I can do that.\" But his own efforts were \"a disaster,\" he remembers. \"I realized I couldn't do it, so I just took the brush and made big strokes.\"\n\n\"The Brushstroke dishes turned out so well!\" Redd chimes in. \"I love those.\"\n\n\"That's what you call an accident,\" replies De la Renta. \"The creative process is an education anyway.\"\n\nSpeaking of plates, De la Renta actually has a third rule for entertaining. \"The food must be wonderful,\" he says. \"We try to make it as uncomplicated as possible. It should be simple but interesting.\" In Punta Cana, his favorite dishes include soupe de poisson, lobster-curry salad, and risotto cakes (recipes for which will be included with select serving pieces in his line), made by his chef, Pierre van Impe\u2014whose previous post was cooking for Gianni Agnelli. And it is De la Renta who typically oversees the menu, not his wife, the equally gifted host Annette. \"I have to,\" he says with a laugh. \"In most houses it's the men who order the food, because the wives are very thin!\"\n\nThe De la Rentas also own a Connecticut country house called Brookhill Farm and a Park Avenue apartment. In the next couple of years the designer plans to add gift and tabletop items inspired by those settings as well. What's in store? Perhaps the essential accoutrements needed for stylish entertaining outdoors. After all, Brookhill Farm is known for its exquisite gardens created by the great Russell Page. Or maybe De la Renta will introduce the trappings of a sophisticated uptown evening. Rest assured, the pieces will be pretty, uplifting, and ultra-refined, just like everything else the charismatic tastemaker touches.\n\nClick here to view the slideshow of pieces in Oscar de la Renta's upcoming home collection."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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