Givenchy

About the house

Hubert de Givenchy founded the couture house in 1952. His first collection leaned on separates, floaty skirts and puffy blouses cut from raw cotton. A year later, in 1953, he met the actress Audrey Hepburn.

That friendship produced the house's first fragrance story. L'Interdit, composed by Francis Fabron, was made for Hepburn, and she wore it exclusively until it reached the public in 1957. The same year Parfums Givenchy followed as the perfume arm of the house. Hepburn is described as the first actress to become the face of a perfume, and the name is said to come from her reaction when Givenchy proposed selling it: "But I forbid you."

LVMH has owned Givenchy since 1988, and the founder stayed on as creative director until he retired in 1995. Since then the couture side has passed through a run of designers, with Sarah Burton appointed creative director in 2024.

The 1980s and early 1990s belong to Dominique Ropion. He composed Ysatis, introduced in 1984, and has said it was his first fragrance, made when he was very young, and a big success. Perfume Shrine records that Jean Courtiere, then president of Parfums Givenchy, ran the naming search and wanted a word that was non-copyrighted, non-insulting in any known language and mellifluous. Ropion also composed Amarige in 1991. Its name is an anagram of Mariage, and Givenchy states the concept as the happiness of a summer evening on the edge of the Mediterranean.

Earlier releases include Monsieur de Givenchy in 1959, Givenchy III in 1970 and Givenchy Gentleman in 1974, the last later renamed Gentleman Originale.