I believe that really the term is much older than Oscar de La Renta.
Rather than relying on Wikipedia, and bypassing the Oxford English Dictionary (which often has incorrect or incomplete information regarding the history of fashion related terms), I went directly to historical publications databases to see when the term might have first appeared in print.
I found reference to the phrase as early as 1828, and in a small piece of fiction written by LINA LINWOOD for Western Literary Miscellany in 1853. Harper's Bazaar had a racist cartoon titled "Fashions Victim" dating to 1883. An article in the Chicago Daily Tribune used the phrase to describe women who wore overly decorative hats in 1913. The term was again used in the Chicago Tribune in the 1970s to describe women in hot pants. It is in the 1970s that the term begins to appear on a regular basis in print, continuing into the 1980s, 90s and through today.
Additional information
I believe that really the term is much older than Oscar de La Renta.
Rather than relying on Wikipedia, and bypassing the Oxford English Dictionary (which often has incorrect or incomplete information regarding the history of fashion related terms), I went directly to historical publications databases to see when the term might have first appeared in print.
I found reference to the phrase as early as 1828, and in a small piece of fiction written by LINA LINWOOD for Western Literary Miscellany in 1853. Harper's Bazaar had a racist cartoon titled "Fashions Victim" dating to 1883. An article in the Chicago Daily Tribune used the phrase to describe women who wore overly decorative hats in 1913. The term was again used in the Chicago Tribune in the 1970s to describe women in hot pants. It is in the 1970s that the term begins to appear on a regular basis in print, continuing into the 1980s, 90s and through today.