Brand Evaluation

Givenchy or the House of Givenchy was founded by Hubert Taffin de Givenchy in 1952. Hubert Taffin de Givenchy was born in 1927 and is of aristocratic French and Italian origins. He had a close relationship to his mother and grandmother and admired them both a lot. Apart from being interested in making costumes, he was also interested in drawing and architecture. As mentioned the House of Givenchy was founded in 1952 at 8, Rue Alfred de Vigny in Paris and his first garment was a white cotton blouse with flounced English lace sleeves, which was supposed to give a simple ad comfortable impression. The Autumn/ Winter 1952/53 Collection offered women a new freedom and was sold at reasonable prices. The collection had interchangeable, functional and chic skirts and blouses. In 1957 Givenchy released its first perfume L’Interdit which was personally made for Audrey Hepburn. Audrey Hepburn was Hubert De Givenchy’s muse and she was wearing his dresses in several of her films like Sabrina(1954), Breakfast at Tiffany’s(1961) or How to Steal a Million(1966). Givenchy also designed cinema costumes for Michele Morgan, Anouk Aimée, Liza Minnelli, Jeanne Moreau and Elizabeth Taylor. Other celebrities that have been seen wearing Givenchy  Haute Couture are Babe Paley, Princess Grace of Monaco, Marlene Dietrich and many more.  The Kennedy family wore Givenchy clothes to the funeral of John F. Kennedy.  Going back to the perfume, in 1959 Givenchy released its first male perfume which was called ‘Monsieur’. The Meaning of the Givenchy Logo. The Givenchy Logo was designed by Pierre Dinand and portrays stability, balance and quality. The logo unites the symbolism of the number 4 and the square, which stands for loyalty, solidity and methodical order. The square was chosen as it is a fundamental symbol in design. As well as you can see the not completely finished square as a ‘G’ for Givenchy. In 1989 Givenchy Beauté was founded. Most of the eyeshadows are in a square black case (referring to the logo again) and contain 4 shades.  Later on Givenchy Beauté also released blushers, highlighters, mascara(Very famous is the ‘Phenomen Eyes’  mascara by Nicolas Degennes), eyeliner (Le Soin Noir) , lipsticks/lipgloss and face products like the Hydra sparkling range, The Smile’ N Repair range or the Vax’In For Youth , which was the ” first age-defying cosmetic vaccine”. In 1991 Hubert de Givenchy opened the first Givenchy spa near Paris. As of today, Givenchy has four spas around the world. One of the top MakeUp artists who worked with Givenchy, especially for the Catwalk shows, is Pat McGrath. In the last few years she is especially known for sticking gems (small and big ones), lace, jewellery and other kinds of materials on the models of the Givenchy Catwalk shows. Those designs always show a great contrast to the mostly very elegant Givenchy fashion collection. For the Spring/Summer collection too, she added lace, ornaments, jewellery or gem stones which could be linked to the designers S/S Haute Couture collection. I felt very inspired by Pat McGraths work for the S/S2016 and wanted to do something similar for my own catwalk designs. For my designs I used smaller gems and small to medium sized pearls and made a headband out of lace flowers and the pearls. The gem stones which I stuck onto the eye area and lip area made the look very dramatic without overdoing it.  I also really liked the Spring/Summer 2016 MakeUp Collection as the tones were pastel like and shimmery, which gives an overall fairy like and glowy finish. In conclusion I choose Givenchy as it is a brand that gives me the opportunity to achieve very elegant looks as well as more Avant Garde ones. But sometimes I felt that I would maybe go too far away from the original Givenchy concept and had to consider if my design are appropriate.