In a rare interview, one of the last remaining masters of haute couture, Hubert De Givenchy, discusses the passage of fashion time with Vive La Vie.

The starched white coat, silver hair and imposing stature portend an exacting verisimilitude of the well-heeled specialist. And that he is - a practitioner of the most particular kind addressing the mind and dressing the body with a most gifted master. In the pantheon of enduring fashion gods, Hubert de Givenchy is perhaps the most reclusive, the most elusive and, the most beloved.

His own remarkable stylistic legacy aside, on his way to becoming 'Givenchy', Hubert experienced firsthand a remarkable epoch in fashion, and social history. The names that litter his inventory of reference are legend and he fascinates with the candour of one who was there. Apprenticed to Fath, Piguet, Lelong, Schiaparelli; repeatedly pursued by Dior to aid in the fruition of the New Look, and ear for Chanel when she felt her reputation being overshadowed by a new breed of designing youth...the list is manifold and very important, and Hubert de Givenchy knows and understands the characters, the genius and the personalities that today, constitute couture folklore. But the most influential of all was Balenciaga, the great Spanish master who is as formative in Hubert's design sensibility today as he was for the small boy in provincial Beauvais and the incipient young innovator who renewed the art of simplicity in fashion.

Asked why he wanted to be a great designer, Givenchy is pleased and begins to warm to his subject. "That is a nice question to ask me..." he says reflectively almost to himself. "I think that for this kind of thing, you are born...the same if you want to be a great chef, dancer, actor, you are born to do that special thing. As a young boy, my mother was a wonderful influence - she loved fashion. She would select dresses with great taste and style. I discovered more and more throughout the years of my education that I was attracted to fashion and I decided to come to Paris with my sights set on studying with Balenciaga. I was seventeen and naturally, M. Balenciaga did not rush to see me. It was a huge disappointment for me.