What Hubert de Givenchy can teach you about fashion: ten years after stepping down from the house he founded and on the eve of another designer's ascension to the label that bears his name, Hubert de Givenchy talks to Dana Thomas about his successors, his dear friend Cristobal Balenciaga's influence and the current state of design.(Interview)

Hubert de Givenchy opens the door himself. A regal man of imposing stature--he stands six feet six--he kindly ushers you into the soaring salon of his stately 18th-century home in Paris. As his Labrador Junior comes loping in, Givenchy invites you to take a seat on the sofa. Behind him on the oak-paneled walls hang a large Picasso called Le Grand Pan, a collage by Braque and paintings by Leger and Matisse.

Outside the double glass doors of the adjoining dining room is the manicured jardin a la francaise, with its emerald-green lawn as neat as a carpet and box trees trimmed into ...

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