Hubert de Givenchy is dead

Hubert de Givenchy, legend of Haute Couture and founder of the homonymous brand in 1952, is dead on Saturday, March 10, 2018 at the age of 91 years.

The news was given by his partner, the fashion designer Philippe Venat.

Hubert with his House of fashion defined the idea of elegance: he dressed in fact women like Queen Elizabeth II, Jacqueline Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn, his muse.

The famous "Breakfast by Tiffany" is one of his creations: it became one of the most iconic dresses of the twentieth century.

Hubert was born in 1927. After the war he arrives in Paris to follow the passion for fashion.

In 1952, at only 25 years old, he opened his own atelier and the success arrived immediately. Critics and buyers are not lacking and his blouse ' Bettina ' becomes one of the most celebrated and worn garments of the period. In 1953 he met Audrey Hepburn, an actress who immediately became his muse. In her, woman who differs from the style of the period in an era of femme fatale and pin-up; Audrey has a skinny body and in her Givenchy finds her ideal ambassador. For her, he creates a sack dress, the enveloping mantle, the balloon skirt, the corset dress. All the leaders who enter into the imagination of elegance that still does not cease to fascinate today.

Hubert's master was Cristobal Balenciaga, another big name in the history of fashion. "From him I learned that you must never cheat either in life nor in work ", he' told, "He and Vionnet for me were the most innovative masters." After Balenciaga's death in 1968, he inherited his clients: Lauren Bacall, Grace of Monaco, Jacqueline Onassis and the Duchess of Windsor all run to dress with him.

Discreet and elegant, without too much noise sells its brand in 1988 to LVMH for 45 million dollars after 36 years of success from independent. He remained creative director for another 7 years when, in 1995, he decided to retire.

In the years, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Julien McDonald, Ozwald Boateng, Riccardo Tisci until AClaire Waight Keller, the current creative director of the Maison.

In 1991, the Palais Gallica of Paris dedicated to him the retrospective "Givenchy 40 years of Creation", regrouping the work of a lifetime. "Since my childhood I have been seduced by fashion," he declares during the opening of the exhibition. "My work has been my life. My job was the most beautiful work I could do and that's why I loved it so much and that's why I chose it from the beginning. I'll never stop loving him, ever. "