“It gives you a good feeling. Each year, you rediscover in a garden the magic of life. A flower arrives, and it is a miracle. The leaves fall in the autumn, and it looks fantastic. There is a tenderness about a garden, and you can’t help but be sensitive to that.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I am of tradition, but that doesn’t mean I have an old outlook on life.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“As time passes, we like to simplify our lives.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“You must, if it’s possible, be born with a kind of elegance. It’s part of you, of yourself.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“It’s a fabulous thing to give life to fabric, to make something move well, the harmony of colour.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Fabric is the most extraordinary thing; it has life. You must respect the fabric.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Encouragement helps you to go one step more, become better.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I think all beautiful women have a clean look. They like things that are simple.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Life is like a book: one has to know when to turn the page.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“To have lived your dream is very rare in life. I am a very happy man. I have been so fortunate.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“When you are a designer, what’s important is to be aware of things. Everything should lead to an idea, a line to follow, a movement.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“If fashion is good, it has no epoch.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Like in great painting and architecture, in couture, to make clothes you must eliminate, eliminate, eliminate to obtain the true sense of a line. You see, the more you add, the more you load on, the more it’s mad. You must try to have just the silhouette, which is an intelligence in clothes.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“If you want to express yourself, it is difficult to be by yourself. You must have people around you who understand the same music. It is like being the chef d’orchestra. They need you, but you need them desperately.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“You work around a body and adapt the clothes to your own customer, and this is the interesting part. This is why the haute couture exists: because in ready-to-wear, you have not too much fitting.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I haven’t really got a green thumb, but I love gardens and their architecture.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Fashion should evolve slowly, without any revolution.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“It was always my dream to be a dress designer, and my mother accepted that decision.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“It’s the most beautiful job in the world to give happiness to people.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“The little black dress is the hardest thing to realize because you must keep it simple.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I had this creativity always with this will for perfection, and I always said to myself, ‘Look for what’s best.’ ‘That’s your goal, your driving principle.’”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Always I remember when I am young, I ask my mother, ‘I really want to be a dress designer.’ In that time, was quite difficult because, you know, my family always criticize me for it not to be a man’s job.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Balenciaga taught me everything I know. He taught me to care for the details, that it was not necessary to sew on a button where it had no use or to add a flower to make a dress beautiful… no unnecessary detail.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“My grandmother had a cupboard where she kept her collections and textile samples of all sorts of things. When I had good grades, I could take out one piece of work to look at.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I had the fortune to evolve at a time when fashion was very important, and women dressed themselves very well. A woman who dressed very well also had a husband who would have beautiful collections of art and decorative objects.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Each of my garments is something special in itself. You give all your energy to each piece, to each creation, and I have no favourite. I love all of them equally.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“To be a couture designer is not only to create dresses but to adapt your line to your private customers. It is why couture is expensive. You are like a doctor.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I love to dance, and I love to see people dance. It is good exercise. It gives you a kind of energy.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“You never finish learning.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Balenciaga was my religion. Since I’m a believer, for me, there’s Balenciaga, and the good Lord.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Clients become very attached to the fitter who they feel understands them.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Mine is one of the most beautiful professions in fashion: making others happy with an idea… I am happy because I did the job I dreamt of as a child.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“If I had to start over, I’ll do the same thing: street clothes are the future; the client can choose two or three things and combine them as she wants.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“A piece of material has a life. You must never upset it if you want the material to speak.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“You have to know when to stop – that’s wisdom.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I dreamed of fashion as a little boy.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“In the early ’50s, it was still the time of Christian Dior’s New Look. Every dress was big and important, and I thought I must do something completely different. Women needed something for daytime that was wearable.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I didn’t do any designs for ‘My Fair Lady.’”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“People say I am a classic designer. I don’t try to be classic, but I do try to be simple and elegant.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I really love to work like a machine.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“American and Italian women stimulate designers to do new things.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“When I am designing, I keep in mind more the American woman than the French woman.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I’ve stopped making frocks, but not making discoveries.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“My mother was a beautiful lady, elegant, chic, and that was the biggest inspiration to me.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I don’t think I am avant-garde. I made a lot of creations and created harmony with my fabrics, but I was not like Balenciaga, for example, although he was, of course, a great inspiration.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“When you see the best of the best – when you see a Matisse or a Picasso – what interests you is the creativity and harmony.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“As a student, I was more gifted in history and geography. Things like arithmetic were not my strength.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“It is important to work. It is important for my mind.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I’d love to wear the big pant, like I see on the street, or the blouson, but I’d look ridiculous. I’m not that shape. You must respect yourself.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“To change just because of change, that is not my idea at all.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“Of course everyone dreams of living in the 17th or the 18th century because of the costumes, but there were so many incommodities.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
“I think when you sell your company and are no longer the master of driving it, it’s quite difficult.”
― Hubert de Givenchy
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