The legendary French couturier Hubert de Givenchy, founder of the homonymous "maison", died last Saturday at the age of 91, French media reported today, citing a statement from the family.
"Monsieur De Givenchy went off while he slept on Saturday, March 10, 2018. His nephews and nieces share his pain. The funeral will be held in the strictest privacy, "the statement said.
The family indicated that "instead of flowers and crowns" the deceased "would have preferred a donation to UNICEF in his memory."
The creator in 1952 of the Givenchy brand was born in 1927 in Beauvais (western France), from where he went to Paris at age 17 to devote himself to what was then his passion.
He started working for Jacques Fath and then successively for Robert Piguet and Lucien Lelong before entering Elsa Schiaparelli, where he quickly became artistic director.
A fundamental role in his work was played by his meeting in 1953 with Audrey Hepburn, to whom he lent several models for his film "Sabrina". The actress would be in 1957 the image of the first perfume of the French couturier, "L'interdit".
Another important figure that marked his biography was that of the Spanish seamstress Cristóbal Balenciaga.