\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tLuis Est\u00e9vez spring 1976 resort show, New York and Luis Est\u00e9vez 1984 holiday collection, Los Angeles. Fairchild Archive\/WWD<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tIn 1967, though his business in New York was on an upswing, he decided to seek the sun, sparkle and social sway of L.A., \u201cI wanted the Havana of my youth\u2026,\u201d he told WWD.<\/p>\n \n\tHis clientele included Hollywood stars like Lana Turner, Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor, Merle Oberon, Natalie Wood and Princess Grace of Monaco. Betsy Bloomingdale and First Lady Betty Ford were also clients. Est\u00e9vez credited Ford, who always wore looks directly from his collections, for helping expand his label\u2019s visibility. It was also in L.A. that he designed his families hilltop home, La Vista, where he entertained, and his namesake bespoke design studio and boutique in Montecito.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tFirst Lady Betty Ford (L) wearing Est\u00e9vez eveningwear at the White House, 1976 and Zsa Zsa Gabor with Luis Est\u00e9vez on the runway during his spring 1974 show, Los Angeles. Fairchild Archive\/WWD<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\t\u201cI associate fashion with the reality of the people I know who wear fashion, and where and how they wear it. What I am talking about here is my fashion, and my theory. I know that it\u2019s not \u2018in\u2019 with the very hip crowd of people,\u201d he stated in 1976, \u201cbut I don\u2019t give a damn.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhile Hollywood suited his verve for life, it wasn\u2019t exactly a good career move. Est\u00e9vez continued to design and produce his couture, rtw, furs, accessories and shoe collections into the 1990s, when he retired.<\/p>\n \n\tBorn in Spain, Fernando S\u00e1nchez (1935-2006) began his couture career at the houses of Maggy Rouff, Dior \u2014 at the request of his friend Yves Saint Laurent \u2014 and Nina Ricci before going out on his own. Though he told WWD in 1966, in one of his first interviews, that he had only \u201cdabbled\u201d in lingerie, the category he elevated to high fashion would become the foundation of his design legacy.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tBilly Blair and a model in Warner by Fernando S\u00e1nchez, 1975, 40-piece loungewear and lingerie collection. Sal Traina\/Fairchild Archive<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tS\u00e1nchez arrived in New York in the late 1960s, taking the helm as designer for Warners bras and at-homewear under his own name \u2014 a privilege few designers have retained. During the same period, he designed furs for Revillon. In 1973, he opened his namesake label and in succeeding years signed licensing deals with moderate price lingerie labels Lily of France and Vanity Fair.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a recent conversation with his former assistant publicist, Tanya Wetenhall, she recalled, \u201cFernando brought fashion, sophistication and construction to loungewear at a time when the category was still largely seen as something separate. It was a combination of his mother\u2019s style, his love of Morocco, iconic films like \u2018West Side Story,\u2019 music from \u2018The Last Emperor,\u2019 and his love of New York City, where he made his home, and the nightlife, that inspired his artistic vision.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI design from a feeling\u2026probably because I don\u2019t know lingerie. I really am a dress designer \u2014 unconsciously, I make dresses. \u201cLingerie,\u201d he noted, \u201c\u2026should be glamourous and frivolous, but must be, first of all, flattering.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tMounia at Fernando S\u00e1nchez, spring 1979 and Terri May at Fernando S\u00e1nchez spring 1984 lingerie and loungewear collection fashion shows. Fairchild Archive\/WWD<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tHis annual collections were often praised for bringing a sensual contemporary edge to the lounge-to-rtw concept he helped evolve. His signature silhouettes included the tricolor stay-at-home puff coat and lacy slipdresses that could be worn as eveningwear. S\u00e1nchez topped it all off with a playful sense of razzmatazz \u2014 colors, leopard prints and accents of silver and gold. He also designed swimwear, plus-size lingerie and loungewear with the same intentional glamour, underpinned by a sense of frivolous intelligence and freedom that emboldened women to take lingerie out of the boudoir \u2014 a concept that continues to inspire fashion today.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tLuis Est\u00e9vez (L) and Fernando S\u00e1nchez attend the Hispanic Designers Inc., Gala Washington, D.C., 1990. Guy DeLort\/Fairchild Archive<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPenske Media via Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tWhile their labels are no longer visible, Est\u00e9vez and S\u00e1nchez both earned recognition from the Coty Awards, the CFDA, and the Hispanic Designers Inc.\u2019s 1990 gala, among other honors throughout their careers. Together, their influence left an indelible mark on American fashion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 1990, the Hispanic Designers Inc. organization held its sixth annual gala and fashion show, recognizing Luis Est\u00e9vez with its Lifetime Achievement Award and Fernando S\u00e1nchez with the MODA award, for their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/estevez_resort_evening.jpg?w=300\")
<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/estevez_zsazsa_betty.jpg?w=300\")
<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\t\tFernando S\u00e1nchez: Building a Legacy in Lingerie\t<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sanchez_warners.jpg?w=300\")
<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sanchez_runway.jpg?w=300\")
<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>![\"Luis](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Hispanic_Gala_1990.jpg?w=195\")
<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"