hautecouturememories: Hubert de Givenchy (1927 - 2018), tall, noble and impeccably tailored, tells a
hautecouturememories: Hubert de Givenchy (1927 - 2018), tall, noble and impeccably tailored, tells a story about dressing The Duchess of Windsor (1896 - 1986), whose husband, The Duke of Windsor (1894 - 1972) gave up the throne of England for the woman he loved. “The Duke didn’t speak French – he spoke Spanish, German and, of course, English,” the couturier remembers. “He said to me, ‘Givenchy, you know, I really like what you do for the Duchess.’ But just as I replied, ‘Thank you, that is very kind, it’s very encouraging,’ he suddenly asked me, ‘Why is the price so high?’” At that moment The Duchess entered, with a new bouffant hair-do by her hairdresser, Alexandre de Paris, trying to smooth things over: “Do you think the price is so high for all the joy and pleasure I give you with all the lovely dresses Hubert has designed for me?” When The Duke died in 1972, Givenchy created a coat, dress, and pillbox hat for The Duchess. The all-black couture outfit, made in hardly two days and nights of work, was finished just in time for the plane arriving to take the Duchess to an icy reception in England. She greeted the designer with the words, “Hubert, it is really marvellous.” “But I said, ‘No, it is normal; it is my job to do that,” Givenchy recalls. “Although there is a lot of criticism about the Duchess, she was a very elegant, amusing and entertaining lady.” © Vogue, HauteCoutureMemories -- source link