Sully Bonnelly designer for the houses of Bill Blass and Eli Tahari before starting his own collection in 1998, retailing at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and other stores around the globe. Later in his career, he returned to Oscar de la Renta as creative director for the O Oscar Collection. Bonnelly, a native of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, grew up with fashion being an intrinsic part of his identity.He studied architecture at UASD before moving to New York where he graduated from Parsons School of Design and began his career in fashion as Oscar de la Renta’s
Oscar de la Renta Madrid. For extra money, he drew clothes for newspapers and fashion houses. After Francesca Lodge, the wife of John Davis Lodge, the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, saw some of his dress sketches, she commissioned de la Renta to design a gown for her daughter. The dress appeared on the cover of "Life" magazine that fall. He quickly became interested in the world of fashion design and began sketching for leading Spanish fashion houses, which soon led to an apprenticeship with Spain's most renowned couturier, Cristóbal Balenciaga. He considered Cristóbal Balenciaga his mentor. In 1961, de la Renta left Spain to