Chosen Brand - Hubert de Givenchy - A Brief History

Book Ref: Mort, F (1998). The Givenchy Style. New York: Vendome Press. p1-20.

Book Ref: Steele V (2010). The Berg Companion to Fashion. London: Bloomsbury Academic . p483.

Internet Ref: Givenchy Official. The History. Available: http://www.givenchybeauty.com/en/history. Last accessed 1st Feb 2016.

Internet Ref: Roff C . (2011). Hubert de Givenchy Biography, History and Famous Quotes. Available: http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/biographies/hubert-de-givenchy-biography. Last accessed 1st Feb 2016.

Hubert Givenchy
http://couturestyle.net/givenchy/

Born in 1927 France to a background of noble aristocracy, Hubert de Givenchy has become an iconic pillar within fashion history. Raised predominantly by his mother and grandmother as a result of his fathers passing in 1930, Givenchy inherited an innate passion for fabric and artistic qualities. As a child many regarded his ambition to work alongside his passion as a hopeless future, however this was overruled by the support of his matriarchal family members. During his school years, his grandmother rewarded good academic results through access to her selection of treasures and fabrics, which educated Hubert’s palette for specialised fabric work later in life. It was during these years of couture collection that Givenchy was able to establish a degree of favouritism amongst textures and an eye for how to work with a fabric to create maximum movement. These fabrics included silk which according to Givenchy had its own unique aroma, the smooth touch of velvet and the crackling sounds that satin made as it glided over the skin. These fabrics, known for their expense and luxury have become front-runners in each collection of the brand and in turn mimic the historic connection that Givenchy as a designer has to his aristocratic heritage.
By 1944 Givenchy had moved to the fashion capital of Paris and enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts whereby he began his career as an apprentice for the fashion house of Jacques Fath. Here he acquired relationships with luminaries such as Madame Schiaparelli, Robert Piguet and Lucien Lelong. It was from these people in particular that he learned the art of couturier and in turn gained further skills from Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli. By 1952, at the age of 24 the couture establishment of La Maison Givenchy wad debuted which featured an array of floor length skirts and blouses created from the very ornate fabrics that Givenchy had adored so much as a child. By 1954 the house had become the first to present its own ready to wear line that featured the main garment templates that would go on to become the mainframe for Givenchy’s aesthetic for the next 50 years or so.  During this time Givenchy also established a close relation to renouned model Bettina Graziani who happened to assisted in debuting the brands ‘Separates’ collection back in 1952 at the first establishment of the brand as a fashion house. 

It was shortly after this in 1953 that Hubert met the one of the first actresses to become a figurehead and muse for the brand, Audrey Hepburn. Hepburn who has been said to have arrived in a t-shirt and sandal combination went on to establish a 40 yearlong connection with the fashion house of Givenchy. As a direct result of this relationship, Givenchy went on to design the actresses complete personal ensemble of garments featured in films famed for her style such as “Funny Face” and “Sabrina”.  The most iconic of which however remains that of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” whereby Givenchy’s famous ‘little black dress’ marked the opening statement for the film. The dress remains to this day the most iconic garment of the twentieth century cinema. The dress is such a staple piece within the houses history that in November 2006 actress Natalie Portman appeared on the cover of Harpers Bazaar magazine wearing one of three original Givenchy creations. Each of which were auction valued afterwards to a cost around £467,200.  Following his success with actress Audrey Hepburn, Hubert went on to dress other stars from Elizabeth Taylor to Liza Minnelli and Grace Kelly.

By 1957 to 1973 a great time of change for the House of Givenchy with the introduction of its first fragrance in 1957, creation of the “sack” dress and launch of the first men’s collection “Gentleman Givenchy” in 1973. The creation of the sack dress marked a new figure for the female form allowing a sense of mystery to be created around the body and also encouraging the show of more risqué parts of the body such as the legs. It was during this period that dresses and skirts began to shorten dramatically to make way for a more sexualised form of garment design. The most iconic feat of this period however was the of the brands establishment within the beauty industry.  The fragrance ‘L’Interdit’ created in 1957 as a homage to the actress Audrey Hepburn marked the first celebrity endorsed fragrance to be readily available to the public. This was followed by a series of fragrances in 1959, which featured a male fragrance, 1970’s ‘Givenchy III’ and the 1980 ‘L’Eau Givenchy’. Since then the brand has gone on to release many more in the field of fragrance up to the present year. 

Hubert de Givenchy went on to retire from the house in 1995 handing over his role of Creative Director to a series of successors including John Galliano and the late Alexander McQueen.