Hubert de Givenchy: one of the founding fathers of Haute Couture.....

It’s a sad day for the fashion industry. Fashion mogul and French designer Hubert de Givenchy passed away yesterday at 91. According to an official statement released, the celebrated fashion designer passed away in his sleep. Givenchy’s partner, Philippe Venet released a statement saying, “It is with huge sadness that we inform you that Hubert Taffin de Givenchy has died.”

Hubert de Givenchy, one of the founding fathers of haute couture, dies at 91

Audrey Hepburn called him “a personality maker”, the French knew him as “Le Grand Hubert” and he was revered internationally as one of the most famous names of haute couture. Hubert de Givenchy, the fashion designer and couturier behind the house of Givenchy, has died, aged 91.
News of his passing was announced by his family via French news wire AFP on Monday.
One of his most famous clients, and dearest friend, was Audrey Hepburn, whom Givenchy met when she was still a relatively unknown, underpaid actress. Offered the opportunity to choose her own wardrobe for the upcoming film Sabrina, she requested to see the couturier à la mode who, standing at a rangy 6”6, towered over the postwar Parisian fashion world both literally and figuratively. (French newspaper L’Express famously said Givenchy was to fashion what Françoise Sagan was to literature and Bernard Buffet to painting: successful, glamorous, gorgeous and very, very French.)

Designing the slim-cut black jumpsuit and the strapless, embroidered organza gown immortalised in Sabrina, Givenchy forged a friendship with Hepburn that was to span seven subsequent films, creating some of the most iconic looks in cinematic history, including the black sheath dress worn by Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. In 2006, Givenchy plucked a version of the dress from his private collection, and sold it at Christie’s, where, after a frantic bidding war, it fetched £467,200, which was donated to charity.
Givenchy and Hepburn’s alliance sparked a style so parroted that Cecil Beaton once remarked, acidly, “nobody ever looked like her before World War II. Now thousands of imitations have appeared. The woods are full of emaciated young ladies with rat-nibbled hair and moon pale faces.” Indeed, the actress and couturier were so close that the Funny Face star made him mediator of her will shortly before her death in 1993.

Although their bond was unique, this was the golden age of couture, and the designer dressed scores of famous and beautiful women. He created the wardrobe for Jackie Kennedy’s state visit to France in 1961, stitched Grace Kelly’s emerald-green day dress and bolero jacket for a trip to Washington in the same year, and, in 1972, crafted the black coat the Duchess of Windsor wore to her husband’s funeral.
Givenchy didn’t fall into this world of fame by virtue of just luck – he was helped along the way by another kind of fortune. Born in Beauvais, France, in 1927, he was the younger son of Béatrice and Lucien Taffin de Givenchy, the marquis of Givenchy (who died when he was just two years old), and the grandson of Jules Badin, the director of the Gobelins tapestry works.

Although his grandfather had a profound influence on Givenchy’s artistic development, his fascination for fashion was piqued by his grandmother, who raised him with his mother, and used to grant him access to her cabinets full of fabrics as a reward for getting good grades at school. His imagination stirred, the young Givenchy would sketch wardrobe ideas for various heads of state, and later, fabric remained at the heart of his label; his favourite part of the design process was not the finished product, but the arrival of the materials at the beginning.

Aged 17, Givenchy moved to Paris to study at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Here he met the designer Jacques Fath, and started working for him the next day, rapidly learning the commercial advantages of having an international clientele. Cutting a deal with a manufacturer to make and sell a range of his designs in the U.S., Fath was the first French designer to “break America”. Has was one of many storied employers. Eighteen months later, Givenchy was hired by Robert Piguet, and within a year, moved to Lucien Lelong, where he worked alongside the still-unknown Pierre Balmain and Christian Dior. Here, he observed the machinations of a classic couture house in action, before completing the final leg of his training with Coco Chanel’s rival, Elsa Schiaparelli, where he learned her trademark values of composition and elegance.

In 1952, aged just 24, Givenchy opened his own couture house, and in February that year presented his debut collection, featuring the Bettina blouse, which became an early emblem of his youthful aesthetic. Named after the model Bettina Graziani, it had a wide collar, open neck and full, ruffled sleeves stitched with black embroidery and fitted with a row of small buttons. Despite shooting to fame in the middle of his twenties, Givenchy had the foresight to look beyond the allure of overnight success. He wanted to build a solid, sound house. “I have a great responsibility to all the seamstresses, fabric weavers and button makers who depend on the haute couture shows for their bread,” he said.

Whilst upholding the couture industry’s traditional emphasis on craft, Givenchy became known for his ability to reconceptualise classicism, understanding the need for women to feel comfortable and in control of their clothes. At the heart of his aesthetic was the revolutionary concept of separates: he slashed lavish ball-gowns into two so that his clients could change their outfits according to their mood. He teamed up with his idol, the Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga, and introduced a new silhouette called the “sack”, which loosely freed the previously cinched waistline.
Givenchy’s experiments with shape were weighted with a symbolism that is hard to understand today. Alongside Paris’s other enfants terribles working in the years after the war, he was striving for beauty and form to try and move beyond the horrors that had passed, but remained pervasive.

The power of his deft pairing of tradition with innovation captured the attention of fashion writers around the globe. “M de Givenchy, three inches taller than Gen. Charles de Gaulle, has a dignity just as impressive,” wrote New York Times journalist Phyllis Levin in 1960. Givenchy was not so effulgent. Alongside Balenciaga, he often refused journalists access to his collections until long after his clients had seen the clothes. He was not afraid of being criticised, or copied. Simply, he just didn’t trust the press. “The whole business has lost its equilibrium,” he said. “You would not send an inexperienced reporter to cover a fire or a trial or a sports event. It’s wonderful that so many people find fashion newsworthy, but how few people are trained to cover the field.”

And those who were trained, he trusted even less, suspecting them of presiding over a “magazine dictatorship”, which saw editors influencing buyers, who in turn controlled what customers could buy. Consequently, three items of his collection would be coveted, rather than the whole.
As the decades passed, Givenchy did not falter in his bold, pioneering approach. Beyond linking couture with Hollywood cinema, he anticipated the move towards celebrity endorsement when he made Hepburn the face of his fragrance. He launched the first ever luxury ready-to-wear line, put his name to menswear, accessories, and even the Lincoln Mark V Givenchy car, complete with a new, forward-place, front-vinyl roof. And, in 1988, he became one of the first ever designers to sell his house to a big corporation, before retiring under a decade later.

The nonagenarian couturier outlived his contemporaries, and his brand continued to grow and function long after the concept of clothing as a direct relationship between couturier and client – the golden years of haute couture – had faded into the annals of history. He famously also became far richer than his clients, retiring to his estate a few hours south-east of Paris.
Since then, he has been succeeded by the likes of John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and the Italian designer Riccardo Tisci, who is thought to have rescued the brand from the brink of bankruptcy by reframing Givenchy’s contemporary spirit for a modern age, achieving notoriety for his emphasis on streetwear, sexy, high-octane shapes, and forming close relationships with high-profile celebrities, ranging from Madonna to Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.

Exiting the brand in 2017, Tisci was replaced by Clare Waight Keller, whose success at Chloé stemmed from her ability to design coveted, wearable garments, and fast-selling accessories.
Givenchy’s descendants have all been luminous talents, each hallmarking the house with their own distinct stamp, but none, perhaps, have been able to eclipse his gift for using traditional tailoring to create pure, poetic clothes that empowered his clients so that, like Hepburn, they felt as if they could play the parts they wanted to be.

Givenchy's official social media handle broke the news to the fashion world. It said, "The House of Givenchy is sad to report the passing of its founder Hubert de Givenchy, a major personality of the world of French Haute Couture and a gentleman who symbolized Parisian chic and elegance for more than half a century. His enduring influence and his approach to style reverberates to this day. He will be greatly missed." 

 While we still can’t get our minds around this sad news, the designer rose to popularity with his eternal collaboration with Audrey Hepburn. It all began with Audrey's stellar and iconic look from the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's. The black dress was an instant hit and not only established Audrey as a fashion icon but paved way for Givenchy as a fashion aficionado as well. In an earlier given interview, Audrey revealed what it's like to work with Givenchy. She said, "It was an enormous help to know that I looked the part. Then the rest wasn't so tough anymore. Givenchy's lovely simple clothes (gave me) the feeling of being whoever I played," said the fashion icon.

Givenchy created magic with his muse Audrey but has also redefined fashion norms while designing for Queen Elizabeth II, Grace Kelly and Jackie Kennedy. The House of Givenchy's artistic designer, Clare Waight Keller took to her social media handle to say how "deeply saddened by the loss of a great man and artist I have had the honor to meet and get to know since my appointment at Givenchy.
Not only was he one of the most influential fashion figures of our time, whose legacy still influences modern day dressing, but he also was one of the chicest most charming men I have ever met. The definition of a true gentleman, that will stay with me forever. My deepest thoughts are with his loved ones in this difficult time."

The celebrated designer may not be with us anymore, but he will forever live through his work of art and the legacy that he leaves behind for us. Rest in peace Hubert de Givenchy.