On the day she knew she was dying, she called me to her home in Switzerland and welcomed me into the bedroom where she had been resting for months.
“I have a gift for you. Open this box.”
Inside the tissue paper was a coat. She handed it to me and said:
“If you ever feel sad, my dear Hubert, put this on your shoulders and think of me, Audrey, hugging you to give you comfort.”
Hubert de Givenchy
On a hot summer day in 1953, at the Givenchy fashion house on Avenue Alfred de Vigny in Paris, 26-year-old Hubert de Givenchy was expecting an important guest. His secretary had announced that “Miss Hepburn” would visit. Hubert was excited—he had only opened his fashion house a year earlier and did not yet have many clients.
But when the visitor arrived, it was not the famous Katherine Hepburn, star of Adam’s Rib, but a 24-year-old unknown. “My name is Audrey – Audrey Hepburn,” she introduced herself.
“She looked like a thin stalk of reed. A frail young woman, wearing silly sandals, a white T-shirt, tight checked trousers, and a clumsy hat like a gondolier’s,” Hubert later recalled.
Audrey explained that she needed a designer for the dresses in her new film, Sabrina. She wanted her character to be “dressed with French elegance.” Since Hubert did not have time to create new dresses for an unknown actress, he suggested she pick from his recent collection, and she agreed.
The film won only one Oscar—for costumes—but the award went to Edith Head, the designer of the other characters’ clothes. Hubert’s name did not even appear in the credits. Audrey came to Paris to apologize. “I told her, ‘Audrey, thanks to Sabrina I have so many clients I can’t keep up. I became famous, and it’s all thanks to you,’” he remembered.
This was the start of their friendship.
Audrey became his muse. Hubert affectionately called her “little Audrey,” and he would do anything for her.
In 1961, Breakfast at Tiffany’s premiered, and Audrey played the lead. Hubert created her iconic “little black dress,” a dress that broke the traditional rules set by Chanel. Audrey later said this role was the peak of her career, and Hubert said that dress made him “immortal.”
Hubert was not just her tailor; he was her closest friend and her support. He comforted her when she broke up with her first love, actor William Holden, and stood by her when she married actor Mel Ferrer, when she lost her first child in a stillbirth, and when her son Sean was born in 1960. He also designed the pink suit for her wedding to psychoanalyst Andrea Dotti.
Hubert and Audrey remained close for 42 years—a bond built on devotion, understanding, patience, and deep respect. She died on January 20, 1993, from cancer. At her funeral, Hubert could not cry—he had already used all his tears while caring for her. A few months later, he planted the lilies of the valley she loved on her grave.
After her death, Hubert realized he could no longer work. In 1995, he retired from fashion, leaving his house to John Galliano. He moved to an estate near Paris, focused on gardening, and rarely appeared in public. When asked about Audrey, he would smile and say:
“She was an extraordinary woman, and I miss her terribly.”
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