Born: Beauvais, France, 1927
Hubert de Givenchy's quest for perfection was a direct consequence of his friendship with Cristobal Balenciaga. For 40 years he wore his mentor's white coat at the end of each show. `Monsieur Balenciaga gave it to me,' he told Vogue in 1991. `It is like a talisman, a protection, a second skin.' Givenchy's 1952 philosophy on economy was years ahead of its time: `All a woman needs to be chic are a raincoat, two suits, a pair of trousers and a cashmere sweater.' His own suits are made by Huntsman of Savile Row, London.
Having studied at College Félix Faure in Beauvais and then at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, Givenchy worked with Jacques Fath, Robert Piguet, Lucien Lelong and at Elsa Schiaparelli before opening his own house on 2 February 1952 on the rue Alfred de Vigny at the age of 25. Vogue described him as, `One of the most newsworthy happenings this spring. The applause at his premiere was loud, unqualified, and long.' First-day sales totalled seven million francs.
By 1963 Balenciaga and Givenchy were being talked about in the same breath. `Between them, Balenciaga and Givenchy innovate and predict, with an equal profundity of perfection and clear-sighted boldness that needs no excessive extravagance to be understood,' wrote Vogue. A decade later, Givenchy was enjoying the fruits of his labour; Vogue described his impeccable apartment, hung with a Picasso: `The setting is superb but then so is Givenchy. The beautiful blue Miró hangs high like a patch of rippling June sky above a drawing room that is so luxe, so polished, so civilised, so burnished, that it practically turns over and purrs when you look at it.'
Givenchy's close relationship with his clients crossed the line between discreet couturier and close friend: Jacqueline Kennedy, who he dressed in ivory satin for a party in Versailles in 1961; the Duchess of Windsor, for whom he made a black dress and coat for her husband's funeral in 1972 in 48 hours; Audrey Hepburn, who Givenchy dressed for almost 40 years after they met at the time he was presenting his first collection. When Givenchy celebrated 40 years in fashion in October 1991 with an exhibition at the Palais Galliéra (Musée de la Mode et du Costume, Paris), naturally it was Hepburn, who had been transformed from gamine film star to ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), who inaugurated it.
Givenchy sold his house to LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) in 1988, after 36 years of being his own boss. With his retirement imminent, the man who Marc Bohan called `the aristocrat of the couture', told the Independent, `I hope someone exciting and new will replace me. It's important that an established hand is not imprinted on the house - we have to look forward.' John Galliano was appointed Givenchy's successor in 1995, followed by Alexander McQueen in 1996.
