Hubert de Givenchy, who has died at the age of 91, was one of the great designers from the golden age of haute couture. His long and stylish list of clients included Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman, but perhaps most famous of all was Audrey Hepburn, for whom as Holly Golightly he created the little black dress seen in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).
A Givenchy collection was witty, elegant and keyed to the high style of his clientele - even including such necessities as Bermuda shorts and swimsuits for their Caribbean winter holidays or suede breeches for hunting weekends along the Loire.
Suits were carved to the body, flattering and utterly right for wearing to a job interview or for meeting a prospective mother-in-law. And once the anti-glamour of the 1960s faded, the great upswing towards formality found Givenchy ready with his grand ball gowns.
Hepburn was his star client, one who always wore his clothes with verve and grace, and he dressed her for nearly four decades. They were first introduced when he was approached to design costumes for Sabrina (1954), although he was unable to commit the time and instead invited her to choose from the rail.
Their relationship undoubtedly benefited them both. Givenchy was propelled to global fame thanks to Hepburn. She, in turn, found a masterful designer who was also sensitive to her insecurities. She was self-conscious about the hollows around her collarbones, for instance, so Givenchy designed a series of dresses featuring what became one of his signatures - the bow.
Her inspiration was first seen in the enchanting musical comedy Funny Face (1957): Givenchy created a collection of custom-designed gowns for her in that film. "From that day on, until she died - too early for me - the friendship was really like a special love affair," he recalled.
In 1957 he created the scent L'Interdit for her and she in turn modelled for its advertising campaign. Even in the years when Hepburn lived in semi-retirement as the wife of a Roman psychiatrist, Givenchy was creating gowns for her.
Jackie Kennedy further burnished his reputation by dazzling Paris when she chose to wear a white satin Givenchy ball gown blazing with multicoloured stones on her state visit with president John F Kennedy in 1961.
Givenchy, who stood an aristocratic 2m, towering over clients, salesmen and press alike, had a quiet dignity, a shy engaging smile, a shock of silver hair and piercing blue eyes. Entering the beautiful pale grey Givenchy boutique, a visitor would feel a sense of calm and elegance, far from the frenzy and bad temper encountered at some rival couture houses.
His charm and authority were such that many on his staff remained hopelessly in love with him and worked far longer hours than any factory hand would stand.Givenchy's menswear collections were equally successful, yet the designer arguably remained best known for the elegant and refined gowns that he created for some of the world's most beautiful and famous women. "Fashion should evolve slowly, without any revolution," claimed Givenchy, "only in this way a dress can be loved and last."
Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy was born on February 21 1927 in Beauvais, north of Paris. "You must, if it's possible, be born with a kind of elegance. It is a part of you, of yourself," he reflected.
Young Hubert had elegance in abundance. He was the younger son of Lucien Taffin de Givenchy, the Marquis de Givenchy. He was only three when his father died of influenza and he was brought up by his mother, Béatrice Badin (known as Sissi), who was from an artistic dynasty, and by his grandmother Marguerite.
"My grandmother had a cupboard where she kept her collections and textile samples of all sorts of things," he said. "When I had good grades I could take out one piece to look at."
Moving to Paris at the age of 17, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts. He founded his couture house on a shoestring in 1952.
Givenchy, who sold his label to the luxury goods group LVMH in 1988 and retired in 1995, turned his efforts to cultural projects in later years.
In 2014 the Thyssen museum in Madrid hosted a retrospective of his designs, during which he claimed that contemporary fashion had become "vulgar" and that elegance had fallen by the wayside.
"Maybe I'll shock a lot of people here," he said, "but I think that haute couture has come to an end."
Hubert de Givenchy lived in some elegance at a manor house two hours southeast of Paris.
He is survived by his partner, Philippe Venet...