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Hubert de Givenchy

French fashion designer (1927-2018)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ167318
Source-derived summary

Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy (French: [ybɛʁ də ʒivɑ̃ʃi]; 20 February 1927 – 10 March 2018) was a French fashion designer who founded the luxury fashion and perfume house of Givenchy in 1952. He is famous for having designed much of the personal and professional wardrobe of Audrey Hepburn and clothing for Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1970.

Early life

Hubert James Taffin de Givenchy was born on 20 February 1927 in Beauvais, Oise, into a Protestant noble family. He was the younger son of Lucien Taffin de Givenchy, Marquis of Givenchy (1888–1930), and his wife, the former Béatrice ("Sissi") Badin (1888–1976). The Taffin family was ennobled in 1713, at which time the head of the family became Marquis of Givenchy. His elder brother, Jean-Claude de Givenchy (1925–2009), inherited the family's courtesy title of marquis and eventually became the president of Parfums Givenchy. A third sibling, Beatrice, was born in 1928 but died shortly after birth.

After his father's death from influenza in 1930, he was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother, Marguerite Badin (1853–1940, née Dieterle), the widow of Jules Badin (1843–1919), an artist who was the owner and director of the historic Gobelins Manufactory and Beauvais tapestry factories. Artistic professions ran in the extended Badin family.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Hubert de Givenchy” is french fashion designer (1927-2018). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Hubert, Givenchy and French, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1927, 2018, 1952, 1970—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1927-02-20. For this dossier, Hubert, Givenchy and French is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “french fashion designer (1927-2018)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q167318. VIAF identifies the subject as 95710143. The Library of Congress control number is n87147046. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1927, 2018, 1952 and 1970.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Hubert de Givenchy”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Hubert de Givenchy primary sources, Hubert de Givenchy archive and Hubert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hubert de Givenchy”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Hubert de Givenchy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.