Small black feathers edging a black crepe cocktail dress defy gravity; cascades of gold and black sequins and multi-coloured stones form a semi-bolero bodice on an elegant evening dress, while an ornate opening on the back of a low-necked dress-coat in ruby red satin gives it an elegantly sensual edge.
The retrospective dedicated to Hubert de Givenchy currently on at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is a feast of shantung, crepe, organza and silk laden with pearls, feathers and rock crystals, a celebration of the female body courtesy of a designer who loved to combine tradition and innovation. This is also the first major retrospective on the work of the French fashion designer and marks the museum's first experiment into the world of fashion.
The event - curated by Eloy Martínez de la Pera - goes from 1952, the year the maison was founded, until 1996, the year of Givenchy's retirement and includes 91 designs some of them never displayed in public before (plus large format photographs) selected by the designer himself and loaned from museums and private collections worldwide.
Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy was born in 1927 in Beauvais, France, a town more famous for its famous tapestries (his maternal grandfather Jules Badin, managed the Manufacture de Beauvais).
Givenchy came from an aristocratic Protestant family and was brought up and educated by his mother and maternal grandmother after the death of his father. Inheriting his passion for fashion from them, he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1944 and broadened his skills with Jacques Fath, Robert Piguet, Lucien Lelong and Elsa Schiaparelli.
In 1952 he founded his own fashion house in Paris - Maison Givenchy - and started producing revolutionationary collections. Cristóbal Balenciaga became for him an inspiration (Givenchy loved his modern sobriety and unique style), a great friend and master (in later years Givenchy supported the creation of the Museo Cristóbal Balenciaga; Givenchy is also the president of its Foundation).
He received many awards and honours throughout his career, such as the Elegance Oscar (1985), the rank of Knight of the Order of the French Legion of Honour (1983), the Golden Thimble (1978 and 1982), and the Tiberio d'Oro (1969), among others. In 1988 the designer sold his firm to the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy group (LVMH), taking full retirement seven years later.
The exhibition opens with a section dedicated to the early days of the Maison. Among the highlights of this section there is the Bettina blouse, named after one of the most beautiful models of the day and close friend of the designer, Simone Micheline Bodin, known professionally as Bettina or Bettina Graziani.
Made from the material of a classic man's white shirt, the Bettina blouse was characterised by an open neck and sleeves embellished with broderie anglais. These blouses marked the designer's first major success in his career and his first step towards international fame.
This section also includes loose evening dresses that could be worn with a skirt or trousers, interchangeable elements that allowed the clients to apply their own style and preferences when mixing and matching them, and were therefore dubbed "separates".
The following rooms feature short dresses, leather garments, silk and lamé designs and dresses that combine black and white, introducing what would become one of the designer's best known characteristics - his masterful use of black.
An admirer of Cristóbal de Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy favoured clean lines and volumes, winning the favour of icons of style, celebrities and key figures from the 20th century. Prominent people from the world of culture, film and politics entrusted him with their wardrobes and Givenchy was able to accord all of them a status that revealed an ability to adapt to modernity. This part of the exhibition focuses in particular on Givenchy dressing Jacqueline Kennedy, Wallis Simpson, Grace of Monaco and his great friend, muse and ambassador Audrey Hepburn.
The evening ensemble consisting of dress and coat in ecru satin with dress bodice embroidered with multi-coloured flowers worn by Jackie Kennedy at the official reception given by General de Gaulle during President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's official visit to France in 1961, is definitely one of the most exquisite ones in this section.
A special section in this part of the exhibition is dedicated to the Givenchy-Hepburn friendship with the black satin sheath evening dress designed for the film Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and the black lace cocktail ensemble consisting of dress and short jacket matched with a lace mask-veil designed for How to Steal a Million (1966).
Hepburn - who also lent her image for Maison Givenchy's first perfume, L'interdit, launched in 1957 and shot by Richard Avedon - declared about the designer "Givenchy's clothes are the only ones I feel myself in. He is more than a designer, he is a creator of personality."
The exhibition continues with an analysis of Givenchy's craft skills, with gowns and dresses characterised by embroidery, gauzes and muslins, and by his elegant use of colour.
The best thing about this section is the fact that the garments on display are compared with 17 selected pieces from the art collections of the Thyssen-Bornemisza to highlight and reveal the influence of paintings on Givenchy's work and his passion for combining Haute Couture elegance with innovative avant-garde art.
The designs on display spark a dialogue with paintings by Hans Maler, Ambrosius Bosschaert I, Theo van Doesburg, Joan Miró, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Nicolas de Staël, Max Ernst, Josef Albers, Frank Stella, Mark Rothko, and Lucio Fontana.
The simplicity of the Bettina blouse is juxtaposed to László Moholy-Nagy's "Circle Segments" (1921); an evening ensemble of trousers ad jacket in brocade lamé embroidered with gold and bronze braid and with metal leaf and mother of pearl pockets from 1990 is compared to Zurbarán's "Santa Casilda" (c. 1630-1635) painting; the draped motifs on a one-shoulder evening sheath dress in navy organza from 1982 brings to mind comparisons with Georgia O'Keeffe's "Abstraction. Blind I" (1921).
Fashionistas who are getting married soon will find the bridal and evening gowns section particularly interesting and inspiring.
Bridal gowns from different periods are juxtaposed to deep black evening gowns or extravagantly glamorous pieces from the '70s and the '80s such as an evening dress in black charmeuse satin with black velvet epaulettes embroidered with diamante.
The retrospective is accompanied by a film cycle and specially designed pieces offered in the shop (exclusive products are also on sale from the Museum online shop, a great idea for Christmas presents). In addition, L'Interdit, the perfume created by Hubert Givenchy for Audrey Hepburn, plus other classic Givenchy fragrances are on sale in the shop during the exhibition.
There is also a wonderful addition to the exhibition - its soundtrack. You can indeed listen on Spotify to a compilation of 34 tracks selected by Hubert de Givenchy himself and including Vivaldi, Bach, Chopin, Bizet, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday among the others, plus the music from Hepburn's films Breakfast at Tiffany's and My Fair Lady.
"Dressing a woman is to make her more beautiful," Givenchy would state in his workrooms on the Rue Alfred de Vigny and the Avenue George V while he sculpted sleeves, sewed collars and assembled skirts to elongate the natural line of the body and enhance it, adding further grace to the movements of the wearer. This exhibition suspended between art and fashion perfectly makes this point showing that beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but it's also in the hands of the designer.
Hubert de Givenchy, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Palacio de Villahermosa, Paseo del Prado 8, Madrid, 28014 Spain, until 18th January 2015.
Image credits for this post
1. Hubert de Givenchy, 1960. Copyright Robert Doisneau
2. Sketch for low-necked dress-coat of ruby red satin, back embroidered in gold with ruby coloured pendant elements.
3. Detail of black satin sheath evening dress; semi-bolero effect bodice embroidered with gold and black sequins and multi-coloured stones, edged with Rosalind coral, 1991. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
4. Detail of one-shoulder cocktail dress in black crepe edged with small black feathers. Winter 1968. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
5. Evening dress in cherry-red faille, bodice embroidered with ruby beads and fringes, 1994. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
6. Sketch for black velvet evening tube gown with large collar; the skirt forming a panel at the back with two large faille shells in absinthe colour and bright pink. Winter 1992.
7. Black velvet evening dress with voluminous over-skirt in absinthe and shocking pink faille. Winter 1992. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
8. Velvet evening dress with draped violet faille over-skirt. 1990. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
9. Bettina blouse with sleeves ruffled in black broderie anglaise and tobacco linen skirt, Summer 1952. Maison Givenchy.
10. Evening ensemble consisting of trousers and jacket in brocade lamé embroidered with gold and bronze braid and with metal leaf and mother-of-pearl on pockets. Winter 1990. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
11. Black evening dress with velvet bodice and cuff flounces that match the faille skirt, 1993. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
12. Evening ensemble consisting of dress and coat in ecru satin; dress bodice embroidered with multi-coloured flowers. Worn by Jackie Kennedy. Summer 1961. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
13. Detail of evening ensemble consisting of dress and coat in ecru satin; dress bodice embroidered with multi-coloured flowers. Worn by Jackie Kennedy. Summer 1961. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
14. Jackie Kennedy at the official reception given by General de Gaulle during President John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s official visit to France, 1st June 1961.
15. Hubert de Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn at a costume fitting for the premiere of the film The Nun's Story by Fred Zinnemann, 1959.
16. Black satin sheath evening dress. Designed by Givenchy for Audrey Hepburn in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's 1961. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
17. Detail of black satin sheath evening dress. Designed by Givenchy for Audrey Hepburn in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's 1961. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
18. Detail of evening coat-dress in ruby-red satin, decollete back with gold embroidery edging and red and black pendants, 1975. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
19. One-shoulder evening sheath dress in navy organza with stole that hangs from the shoulder, 1982. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
20. Bridal gown in heavy white crêpe marocain with real pearl buttons on front and cuffs. Winter 1984. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
21. Evening dress in black charmeuse satin with black velvet epaulettes embroidered with diamanté, 1975. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
22. Detail of evening dress in black charmeuse satin with black velvet epaulettes embroidered with diamanté, 1975. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
23. Evening sheath dress in black velvet, neckline adorned with a large wraparound satin flounce, 1987. Photograph by Luc Castel in collaboration with Philippe Caron.
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