Hubert de Givenchy

Born in the city of Beauvais, France in 1927, Helmut Hubert James Taffin de Givenchy's father died when he was young, and he was therefore brought up by his grandfather, as an artist and expert tapestry maker. In 1944, Givenchy joined the house of Jacques Fath, and worked with him whilst studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts for part time. After a year, he joined Robert Piguet and then Lucien Lelong. In 1950, he joined Elsa Schiaparelli where his brightly coloured and youthful separates enchanted her clientele.

In 1952 Givenchy opened his very own house at 8, rue Alfred de Vigny, near the Parc Monceau in Paris. It is there, that he presented his first collection. As he had no money to buy large amounts of very costly fabrics, he relied uniquely on his designs and presented the entire collection made up from white cotton mens shirting material. He titled the collection Bettina after Bettina Graziani who was the most famous Parisian top model at the time who accepted to handle his publicity. The collection was a very great success, and was widely copied, earning him some worldwide recognition.
 

It was a big surprise when Bernard Arnault, the chief officer of LVMH, appointed following Alexander Mc Queen, Julien Macdonald the British designer, as the chief designer for Givenchy haute couture. His first collection took place in Spring 2001.

The Style of Givenchy

Hubert de Givenchy has been the perfect gentleman of couture for over 43 years. He has dressed a clientele from young debutantes to dowagers in very elegant styles, pure, sculptural, refreshing, lady-like and very addictive. His clients are women for whom elegance is everything. Givenchy is one of the last bastions of quality.

World-known Ladies dressed by his hands include Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the Duchess of Windsor, Gloria Guiness, Bunny Mellon, Mercedes Kellog and actress Capucine (formerly a Givenchy model). The client most associated with Givenchy was actress Audrey Hepburn. She first met him when she was a young and aspiring teenager and he managed to dress her as the elegant beautiful movie star we all know and love.

Givenchy introduced his perfume Interdit in January 1957, allowing only Audrey Hepburn to use it for a whole year, only allowing it into the market in December. He designed clothes for her films "Funny Face", "Breakfast at Tiffanys" and many others. He designed clothes for a total of 10 films altogether.


 

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