Influential fashion designers and their impact on style

Givenchy

Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy was born in France in 1927. At the age of 25, he founded his own fashion house, The House of Givenchy. After becoming interested in the world of fashion following an excursion to the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, he took up studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1945 and 1946, he was allowed to design for the likes of Jacques Faith and Lucien Lelong. For four years, starting in 1947, Givenchy worked for avant-garde fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli (Givenchy). He would become famous in the 1950s for creating clean and simple silhouettes that would add to a woman's femininity. It is said that Givenchy was the man who invented separates for sale, which were usually only used for fittings (Givenchy). Givenchy became renowned for dressing classy women like Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy.

Only a year after opening his own house, Givnechy would meet a young woman who would bring him international fame. The famous story is that when Givenchy heard that he was to meet with the famous actress Miss Hepburn, he believed that his appointment was with Oscar Winner Katherine Hepburn (Givenchy). The actual Miss Hepburn who would walk through the door would begin a friendship that would change his life. Audrey Hepburn contacted the designer when she was filming the movie Sabrina. She wanted an authentic French gown for her character who is supposed to be returning to America after cultivating herself in Paris. The ensembles he created for the film would bring him international notice, earning supervising costume designer of the film Edith Head an Academy Award. His association with Hepburn would go on for the rest of her life. He not only designed the wardrobe for her films, among them How to Steal a Million, and her iconic turn in Breakfast at Tiffany's which turned the little black dress into the closet must-have of every woman in the world, but much of her personal wardrobe as well.