Legendary French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy, who created famous looks for Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Jackie Kennedy, has died at the age of 91.
His partner Philippe Venet, a former haute couture designer, confirmed the news to the AFP news agency saying:
“It is with huge sadness that we inform you that Hubert Taffin de Givenchy has died,” he said via the fashion house.
The designer’s nephews and nieces, and their children, share Mr Venet’s grief, his statement added.
Givenchy was perhaps most famous for creating the iconic “little black dress” worn by Audrey Hepburn in the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
The friendship between Givenchy and Hepburn endured for 40 years, and helped cement his place in fashion – and cinema – history.
She became his muse, and he designed her suits and woollen dresses for the musical Funny Face in 1957, and the light-hearted heist caper How to Steal a Million in 1966.
Givenchy came from an aristocratic background, and worked alongside the then unknown Pierre Balmain and Christian Dior after World War Two.
He was employed by the avant-garde designer Elsa Schiaparelli before leaving to found his own fashion house in 1952. There he introduced the concept of “separates” – blouse, skirt, jacket and trouser combinations that could be mixed and matched.
The designer, who stood at a towering 1.98m (6ft 6in), won instant acclaim for his first collection. “These dresses remind you of that first, best, glass of champagne,” one admiring British fashion writer declared.
He swiftly ventured into menswear, and moved to New York to consolidate his success. There his celebrity customers included US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, who wore one of his designs to President John F Kennedy’s funeral in 1963.
Screen legend Grace Kelly, who would become princess of Monaco, was another famous client.
In 1970, Givenchy branched out into furnishing fabrics, and designed interiors for hotels and even a Ford Continental car.
His fashion house’s enduring popularity was clear on this year’s Oscars red carpet, where stars including Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman wore custom Givenchy designs.
In 1970, Givenchy branched out into furnishing fabrics, and designed interiors for hotels and even a Ford Continental car.
His fashion house’s enduring popularity was clear on this year’s Oscars red carpet, where stars including Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman wore custom Givenchy designs.
“Hubert de Givenchy was a symbol of Parisian elegance for more than half a century,” his label said on Monday.
Aside been credited for introducing the notion of separates to give women greater freedom to choose, he is also one of the first designers to create his own perfume.
In 1988, he sold his fashion house to the luxury brand LVMH, and a few years later he retired to a life of comfortable discretion. He came from a world of fashion which he acknowledged has now all but disappeared – an age of elegance, where clothes were created out of a unique personal relationship between client and couturier.
French business magnate Bernard Arnault, head of the luxury goods company LVMH which now owns Givenchy, called the designer “one of the creators who put Paris at the summit of world fashion in the 1950s”.
-BBC
