Oscar De La

It's official. Oscar de la Renta, who has been showing his ready-to-wear in Paris for the last two years, will design Pierre Balmain's haute couture and ready-to-wear collections. After three months of negotiations, agreement was reached Monday, Mr. de la Renta said by telephone in Paris.His first collection for Balmain will be for spring 1993 and will be shown on Jan. 27. "I'm coming back to New York on Wednesday," he said, "and will be back in Paris for a few days in December. Then I'll spend the month of January here."

It's hard to think of Oscar De La Hoya's retirement as anything but business - he became more a businessman than an athlete so long ago. I wonder, though, whether this means no more talking boxing with casual sports fans. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/toydept)

Paris -- On more than one occasion, fashion insiders have suggested that Oscar de la Renta's designs reflect a decidedly European flavor, despite his company being based in New York.It is a suggestion that makes the designer -- who claims to observe no fashion distinctions along geographical boundaries -- bristle."Why can't American fashion be international like all other fashion? My customers have the same fashion needs no matter where they live."That may well be so, but it is also true that Mr. de la Renta's designs do seem more at home on the larger-than-life runways of the Cour Carre du Louvre than in the much smaller ballroom of New York's Plaza Hotel, a notion underscored this week when de la Renta became the first big-name American design er to bring his runway show to Paris.

Pacquiao earns big win after De La Hoya quits boxing Manny Pacquiao fought a lot bigger than he looked. Oscar De La Hoya simply looked old. Pacquiao dominated his bigger and more famous opponent from the opening bell last night in Las Vegas, giving De La Hoya, 35, a beating and closing his left eye before De La Hoya declined to come out of his corner after the eighth round. The fight was so lopsided and De La Hoya looked so inept that it could spell the end for boxing's richest and most marketable star.

Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta, the ambassadors of American fashion, are always ready to charm.Since Mr. de la Renta, now 61, showed his first collection in 1965 for Jane Derby, and Mr. Blass brought his boyhood visions of 1930s glamour from Fort Wayne, Ind., to New York 50 years ago, they both have slowly and methodically built their careers by dressing the affluent.The formula has paid off handsomely for the two designers.Mr. Blass, 71, has 50 worldwide licensees which reportedly generate retail sales in excess of $700,000,000.

LAS VEGAS -- Standing inches away from his opponent during a photo opportunity after Wednesday's news conference at the Paris Hotel here, Felix Trinidad aimed an intense stare at Oscar De La Hoya.Trinidad had heard it all from De La Hoya, who had taken shots at the Puerto Rican fighter's boxing skills leading up to their welterweight title unification bout at the Mandalay Bay Hotel's event center tomorrow night.De La Hoya did not stare back."All this talking that De La Hoya has been doing, it is only to try to give himself confidence," Trinidad said.

American Son: My Story Oscar De La Hoya with Steve Springer HarperCollins: 286 pages, $25.95 For decades, the health of boxing depended on the presence of a crossover star-the pugilist who could compel non-boxing fans to hit the pay-per-view button. In the late '80s and '90s, Mike Tyson was the magnet, but by the time his antics ended, boxing was badly bloodied and had been shooed off network television. Enter the Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya, a virtuoso of violence who had never been in a street fight and looks like a choirboy.

LAS VEGAS -- Oscar De La Hoya says, heading into Saturday's fight with Felix Trinidad, he is "hungry once again."Given his busy schedule and varied interests, it could be because he barely has time to eat.De La Hoya, the World Boxing Council welterweight champ, is focusing now on the unification title bout against International Boxing Federation champion Trinidad. But that's just boxing.On Tuesday, De La Hoya appeared on "The Tonight Show." He's done some acting, with cameos in several television shows, including the HBO series "Arli$$."

For more than 40 years, Oscar de la Renta has been in the business of making women fall in love. He doesn't rely on flowers, candlelight dinners or the myriad other methods of romantic trickery. Instead, he's called on a glorious silk brocade jacket, a cape of warm cashmere or a fairytale evening gown with fluttering ostrich feathers to help him win the hearts of countless women. When designing, he says, he anticipates the moment that a woman meets a beautiful dress. "I always say, 'Creating clothes is like falling in love,' " de la Renta says during a recent visit to Saks Fifth Avenue in Chevy Chase.

When he defeated Oscar De La Hoya in June 2000 for the World Boxing Council welterweight crown, Shane Mosley was poised to replace De La Hoya as boxing's brightest star. Mosley was 35-0. He had shown speed, power, poise and showmanship similar to Ray Leonard and Ray Robinson - Hall of Famers with whom he shares the nickname "Sugar." But as swiftly as Mosley had risen in the boxing world, two losses to Vernon Forrest over six months in 2002 sent him plummeting to near has-been status. Now, a fiery, resentful Mosley (38-2, 35 knockouts)

A BON commencement bonne fin!" A good beginning makes a good end, say the French. (They are saying a lot these days with their controversial new president, but we could apply this to the Cannes Film Festival as well.) Would you walk a mile down the Croisette to see a movie by the controversial Coen Brothers, or Hollywood's pet Quentin Tarantino, or the fabled Gus Van Sant, or the relatively unpublicized Hong Kong maestro Wong Kar-Wai? If so, maybe you belong in Cannes at the most famous of all movie festivals - this one being the French Riviera's glamorous 60th celebration.

Good morning -- Steve Nash -- Good thing you weren't Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Oscar De La Hoya - the fight would have been stopped.

For the nearly 20 months since losing to Bernard Hopkins, Oscar De La Hoya has enjoyed the life of a man whose ring earnings have surpassed $100 million. Teaming with Hopkins, the former eight-belt world champion has launched Golden Boy Promotions, enlisting names such as Marco Antonio Barrera and Shane Mosley into the stable of fighters he now promotes. And with his wife, Millie, a former Puerto Rican singer, De La Hoya has a 4-month-old son. "Life has been awesome," De La Hoya told Jay Leno during a Monday interview on The Tonight Show, when he also shared that his son kept him up "for all but two hours" the night before, that changing dirty diapers can be a hassle, and that Millie's shedding of ringside tears at tense moments "can be a distraction."

The Dominican Republic has been attracting stars. And here is a chance to visit the Puntacana Resort and Club, whose owners include Oscar de la Renta and Julio Iglesias. (Mikhail Baryshnikov also has a vacation home in the area.) At $85 a person a night (taxes included), for at least three nights (until Dec. 23), you can have one of 175 deluxe rooms at the club, with daily breakfast and dinner as well as a credit for up to $100 a room for beverages (including alcohol). Details: 888-442-2262; puntacana.

When Jacqueline Kennedy and designer Oleg Cassini worked together 40 years ago, they created a kind of fashion magic that has not been seen since. The Parisian-born Cassini plugged into Kennedy's innate fashion sense, and women everywhere wanted to be just like her. Last week, renown designer Oscar de la Renta and first lady Laura Bush - who paired up for George W. Bush's second inauguration - brought back a hint of that iconic time. And Bush's most-acclaimed fashion moment to date left style-watchers wondering if her fledgling relationship with de la Renta has revealed her more stylish side.

Laura Bush's gown - an ice blue and silver vision by Oscar de la Renta - took the first lady from her usual prim and proper appearance to one that was shimmery and glamorous. The first twins' gowns, both Badgley Mischka creations, were movie-star extravagant and as snug as security in the nation's capital, but much sexier. It was an extremely tasteful and stylish show for the throngs celebrating George W. Bush's re-election. As the Bushes dashed from swearing-in ceremony to parade to a string of formal galas during yesterday's inauguration festivities, freedom and fashion both took a stand.

Good morning -- Steve Nash -- Good thing you weren't Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Oscar De La Hoya - the fight would have been stopped.

LAS VEGAS - Undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins leaped onto the ring ropes, then did a goofy forward roll on the ring floor - even as Oscar De La Hoya flopped around on the canvas gasping for air like a goldfish out of his bowl from Hopkins' piercing left hook to the liver. De La Hoya failed to beat the 10 count of referee Kenny Bayless, giving Hopkins a ninth-round knockout Saturday night at the MGM Grand over a man who never before had been stopped in a bout. "It just paralyzes you," said De La Hoya, 31. "You can't do anything about it. You lose your breath.