Givenchy (company)
The Givenchy SA [ ʒivɑʃi ] with headquarters in Paris is a 1952 by the French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy (1927-2018) established, internationally renowned fashion company , in addition to luxurious haute couture mode for ladies and high-priced ready-to-wear mode, Accessories as well as perfume and cosmetics , each for women and men. The company's perfume division, Parfums Givenchy SA , based in Levallois-Perret , was founded in 1957. In 1987 the perfume division and in 1988 the fashion division were bought by LVMH , both of which are still owned today. Givenchy has been run without the company's founder since 1995 .
Company history
Hubert de Givenchy
Count Hubert de Givenchy (1927–2018), who came from a French aristocratic family and was therefore described by the press as the “aristocrat of fashion”, founded after a few years of collaboration with other French designers - including Jacques Fath , Robert Piguet (on the recommendation of Christian Dior ) and Elsa Schiaparelli - in 1952 , in Paris near Parc Monceau, his own fashion brand with the name Givenchy for exclusive haute couture fashion. With combinations of white puff - sleeved blouses with raised collars (the "Bettina" blouse named after his model Bettina Graziani) and long, narrow pencil skirts, which he tailored from pure cotton and other less precious materials due to lack of financial means de Givenchy the exclusive Parisian fashion heaven. After the first huge success, he used more noble materials, but printed them with motifs such as fruits, vegetables or animals that were unusual for haute couture. Typical of Givenchy fashion were strong, bright colors and high waists alongside luxurious gowns with floral patterns, including oversized hats and simple, elegant designs.
In 1953 Givenchy branches opened in Zurich , Rome and Buenos Aires . In the same year de Givenchy met the British actress Audrey Hepburn , who represented for him the ideal model for his fashion. For the then emerging film Sabrina (1954), which is partly set in the better society of Paris, Paramount had arranged an appointment for Hepburn at de Givenchy, who initially mistakenly expected Katharine Hepburn and was only enthusiastic about Audrey Hepburn after a few fittings . Hepburn insisted at the film studios in a row on being equipped in their films by de Givenchy, who dressed the petite actress in modern, feminine silhouettes, for example in the aforementioned romantic comedy Sabrina - hence the "Sabrina" - cleavage of clothes that the The line from the collarbone to the shoulders follows -, in A Sweet Fratz (1957), Breakfast at Tiffany's (film) (1961), Charade (film) (1963) or How do you steal a million? (1966). De Givenchy is considered a co-inventor of the Little Black One (originally launched by Coco Chanel in the 1920s). Hepburn wore such a model in Breakfast at Tiffany's . The original dress was auctioned off at Christie's in London in 2006 for 692,000 euros . In 1956, Hepburn announced about Hubert de Givenchy: “I only feel myself in his clothes.” The collaboration with Hepburn, which lasted until the actress's death in 1993, made the Givenchy brand world-famous and Hepburn a style icon. Other prominent Givenchy customers over the years have included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (who wore Givenchy in the media at her husband's funeral in 1963), Empress Farah Pahlavi , Grace Kelly , the Duchess of Windsor , Marlene Dietrich , Greta Garbo , Lauren Bacall , Jeanne Moreau or Ingrid Bergman . In 1953 a Givenchy model appeared on the cover of American Life magazine . In 1954, Givenchy, like hardly any other haute couture house at the time, introduced a ready -to-wear line for women called Givenchy Université (renamed Givenchy Nouvelle Boutique in 1968 ).
In the late 1950s and 1960s, a heyday for Givenchy, de Givenchy's fashion was often based on his mentor Cristóbal Balenciaga , whom he had met in New York City in 1953 , and presented more classic, purist models. In 1954 the Givenchy atelier moved to the Paris avenue George, in a house opposite the Balenciaga headquarters. The loose-fitting sackcloth was an invention of Givenchy and Balenciaga in 1957. In 1968 de Givenchy hired Issey Miyake from Japan as a design assistant. After Balenciaga's withdrawal from the fashion world in the same year, de Givenchy was known as the “King of Haute Couture”. In 1973, Givenchy men's fashion, Gentleman Givenchy , was launched. In the 1970s, the Givenchy portfolio was finally expanded to include shoes, jewelry and table linen in the licensing area. The house issued 180 licenses in the mid-1980s. In 1976 Givenchy even fitted out the interior of a Ford Lincoln Continental . At Givenchy, the 1970s and 1980s were characterized by timeless, ladylike designs that had to assert themselves against the sometimes wild creations of other Parisian designers.
Givenchy perfumes
In 1957 Hubert de Givenchy founded Parfums Givenchy SA together with his brother Jean Claude de Givenchy (1925–2009) , of which Jean Claude took over as chairman. The company's first perfume, L'Interdit , was created by Hubert de Givenchy for Audrey Hepburn in 1957 and only launched a few years later. Hepburn also appeared in advertisements for Givenchy perfume. In the same year the women's perfume Le De went on sale; In 1959 the first men's fragrance, called Monsieur de Givenchy, followed . Since then, numerous Givenchy fragrances have been launched; In 2012 alone, around ten new creations or variations of existing fragrances were launched. In addition, there are make-up and cosmetic series from Parfums Givenchy.
LVMH
At the end of the 1970s, the Givenchy brothers tried to sell the perfume division for reasons of capital requirements for the fashion division, which was achieved in 1981 with a sale to Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin . Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin in turn - and with it Parfums Givenchy - was taken over by LVMH in 1987. LVMH also bought Givenchy's fashion division the following year. Hubert de Givenchy had given his company to the large group LVMH under the direction of Henry Racamier (1912-2003). In 1988, de Givenchy could not have foreseen that French manager Bernard Arnault would take over the helm of LVMH a short time later . Parfums Givenchy also produces perfumes for other brands under license, such as the fashion brands Kenzo , which is also part of the LVMH group, and Michael Kors .
In 1995, at the urging of the new LVMH owner since 1989, Bernard Arnault , Hubert de Givenchy retired as chief designer of Givenchy and presented his last haute couture collection in Paris in July. He was followed at the beginning of 1996 by the eccentric Briton John Galliano and, after Galliano's move to Dior , at the end of the same year by the likewise British enfant terrible of the fashion scene, Alexander McQueen . McQueen created collections in a completely different style for Givenchy almost every season, eventually fell out with Bernard Arnault and was fired in 2001. McQueen was replaced by compatriot Julien MacDonald in 2001, who stayed until 2003. From 2003 to 2006, the British men's fashion designer Ozwald Boateng created men's fashion at Givenchy, whose collections have been praised by experts. Galliano, McQueen and MacDonald with their sometimes daring and inconsistent designs did not really help to re-establish the Givenchy brand as a coveted luxury brand. The creations had attracted a lot of attention, but the sales figures had fallen. Hubert de Givenchy disrespectfully described the designs by Galliano and McQueen in 1999 as "the opposite of beauty and elegance". After two years without a head designer for women, this only slowly changed from 2005 onwards.
Givenchy today
From 2005 to 2017, the initially rather unknown, Italian Givenchy chief designer Riccardo Tisci was responsible for the haute couture and prêt-à-porter collections for women; from 2008 he was also responsible for the company's men's fashion. Tisci gave Givenchy a new shine with his fashion collections, which were highly praised by the press from 2007 and for which he was sometimes influenced by rock 'n' roll and Gothic , expanded the accessories collection and created, among other things, the popular Nightingale - handbag , Shark - Boots with folded flaps and often tops with large-format prints. Under Tisci, who promoted Givenchy's use of social media , Givenchy's global boutique network expanded from seven in 2005 to 72 in 2017. 2008 equipped Givenchy singer Madonna on her Sticky and Sweet - tour of costumes. In 2009, the Givenchy Redux collection for women made its debut , a slightly less price-intensive second line with bestselling models from previous seasons. Since 2010, Givenchy has no longer presented its haute couture models during fashion shows, but in presentations as a salon de couture for a select audience. In 2014 Kim Kardashian got married in a Givenchy wedding dress. Tisci left Givenchy in early 2017 and was replaced by the former Chloé designer Clare Waight Keller, who became the first woman in the company's history to fill the position of chief designer. In April 2020, Givenchy announced via Instagram that Waight Keller was leaving the company. With the design of the wedding dress for Meghan Markle's wedding to Prince Harry, which is considered iconic in the fashion industry, Waight Keller brought Givenchy a lot of media attention. In June 2020, the American designer Matthew M. Williams took over the post of chief designer.
LVMH does not publish any figures for the individual brands of the group, and thus also not for Givenchy, but stated in the annual reports for the 2010 and 2011 financial years that Givenchy's sales increased by double digits compared to the previous year (" double-digit revenue growth ").
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The inventor of the "little black dress" , sueddeutsche.de, May 11, 2010
- ↑ Givenchy on the 80th - A life for feminine elegance , spiegel.de, February 20, 2007
- ^ Inch by inch female , zeit.de, August 28, 1952
- ↑ The greatest fashion designers: Hubert de Givenchy , welt.de, October 25, 2012
- ↑ Why the Callas tormented themselves with the pounds , welt.de, May 4, 1999
- ↑ Most expensive textile in film history - Hepburn dress auctioned for almost 700,000 euros , spiegel.de, December 5, 2006
- ↑ Auf der Wies'n , spiegel.de, October 14, 1968
- Jump up to the altar , spiegel.de, June 15, 1987
- ^ Sharp cut , spiegel.de, August 30, 2004
- ↑ Wrinkles are beautiful , spiegel.de, April 5, 1999
- ↑ Götter am Modehimmel , sueddeutsche.de, May 17, 2010
- ↑ Givenchy gets a boss nzz.ch, March 16, 2017
- ↑ GIVENCHY on Instagram: “The House of Givenchy and Clare Waight Keller announce the end of their collaboration. Givenchy wants to warmly thank Clare Waight Keller… ” Retrieved April 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Clare Waight Keller leaves Givenchy: We show the most important moments of her career. Accessed April 12, 2020 (German).
- ↑ GIVENCHY on Instagram: "The House of Givenchy is pleased to announce the appointment of Matthew M. Williams as Creative Director, effective June 16th, 2020. ..." Retrieved June 15, 2020 .
- ↑ LVMH Annual Report 2011, page 152 ( Memento of the original from January 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 8.8 MB), lvmh.com, accessed: December 12, 2012
- ↑ LVMH Annual Report 2010, page 78 ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 18.4 MB), lvmh.com, accessed: December 12, 2012
