Early Life and Education
Hubert de Givenchy was born on February 20, 1927 in Beauvais, France into a French noble family headed by Lucien Taffin de Givenchy, Marquis of Givenchy and his wife Béatrice Badin. He had an older brother named Jean-Claude and a younger sister named Beatrice who died shortly after her birth. After his father died in 1930, Givenchy was raised by his mother and his maternal grandmother. When he was 17, he moved to Paris and studied at École des Beaux-Arts.
Career Beginnings
Givenchy did his first designs in 1945, for fashion designer Jacques Fath. He subsequently made designs for Robert Piguet and Lucien Lelong. From 1947 to 1951, Givenchy worked for designer Elsa Schiaparelli.
Givenchy
In 1952, Givenchy founded his eponymous luxury fashion house in Paris. His first collection featured the Bettina Blouse, a white shirt named after fashion model Bettina Graziani. In 1954, Givenchy debuted his ready-to-wear collection, and in 1957 he introduced perfumes and cosmetics under the brand Parfums Givenchy. He subsequently created the iconic balloon coat and the baby doll dress, which made innovative use of geometric seaming. Givenchy reached a new level of international renown in the early 1960s when he designed the iconic little black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” He also created a perfume collection for the actress. Givenchy would go on to design many more clothes for Hepburn over the years. He also designed clothes for such prominent clients as Jacqueline Kennedy, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Maria Callas, Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly, Jeanne Moreau, and numerous European and American socialites. In 1969, Givenchy launched a fashion line for men. Over the next decade, he diversified his brand to include such accessories as shoes, ties, and jewelry, as well as tableware and upholstery. However, as fashion evolved in the early 1970s with the rise of more casual styles, Givenchy’s haute couture largely fell out of favor. He regained his popularity later in the decade when fashion began trending more toward ostentatious glamour. This led to a resurgence in the 1980s, when Givenchy designed chic shoulder-padded chemise dresses, natty suits, and huge ball gowns. At the end of the decade, Givenchy’s fashion house was acquired by the French company LVMH, which later purchased his perfume and cosmetics brand, as well. Givenchy retired from the fashion industry in 1995, and his company was subsequently headed by a succession of young British designers, from John Galliano to Alexander McQueen to Julien Macdonald.
Personal Life and Death
Givenchy lived at the Château du Jonchet, a 16th-century French Renaissance-style château in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. During his retirement, he spent his time collecting bronze and marble sculptures from the 17th and 18th centuries. In 2014, a retrospective exhibition of 95 of his designs was held at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid, Spain. Openly gay, Givenchy was in a relationship with fellow fashion designer Philippe Venet. On March 10, 2018, Givenchy died in Neuilly-sur-Seine. He was 91 years of age. Givenchy was interred in Passy Cemetery in Paris’s 16th arrondissement.
