A GREAT LOSS The founder of the

His classic styles—and partnership with Audrey Hepburn—made an indelible mark on fashion

fashion house of Givenchy dies at age 91.

He was known for effortlessly chic clothes that allowed women to create their own personal style, but Hubert de Givenchy, who died on March 10, at age 91, will be most remembered for his collaboration—and lifelong friendship—with Audrey Hepburn. His iconic designs for 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s set a fashion standard. “The little black dress is the hardest thing to realise,” he once said, “because you must keep it simple.”

Born into an aristocratic French family, the handsome, 1.98m Givenchy became an apprentice to designer Jacques Fath at age 18, and at 25 opened his own fashion house in Paris. Not long after, Givenchy received a call from the wife of the head of Paramount explaining that “Miss Hepburn” wanted to see him to discuss her wardrobe for the 1954 film Sabrina. “I was thinking she meant Katharine Hepburn,” Givenchy later told Vanity Fair, but he was not disappointed. “From our first meeting, Audrey and I understood each other,” Givenchy told WHO in 1996. “I instinctively knew what she wanted.”

And though he dressed the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy and Wallis Simpson, his friendship with Hepburn endured. Author of Audrey Style Pamela Keogh remembers that, later in life, “She used to love going to the Williams Sonoma store in Beverly Hills with Givenchy. They would buy cooking gadgets and just had the time of their lives.”

Givenchy sold his label to the French luxury-goods conglomerate LVMH in 1988, and retired in 1995. This week, Hepburn’s son Sean Hepburn Ferrer told WHO, “Hubert was truly an elegant spirit—through and through. I believe this is what united him to my mother: kindred spirits—both self-effacing and truly humble to the core.”

Along with Givenchy’s partner, designer Philippe Venet, his mother and Hubert “were family and shall remain forever tied in our subconscious for having created the truest beauty of them all—that of the soul.”

“Not just an icon of fashion and enduring style, Hubert was truly an elegant spirit” —Sean Hepburn Ferrer

Bettina Graziani, Givenchy’s friend and head of public relations, opened his very first show in 1952 wearing the Bettina Blouse, which became famous for its big sleeves and eyelet embroidery. Givenchy’s designs epitomised haute couture in the 1950s and...