Hubert de GIVENCHY supports his decorator friend, Janine Janet. 1956

Hubert de GIVENCHY (1927-2018)

Autograph letter signed to Janine Janet.

Two pages in-4°. Stamp from the Janet collection.

Without place. August 20, 1956.

Rare letter from the French designer addressed to his great friend, the artist Janine Janet, decorator for Balenciaga and the Givenchy house.

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“Dear Janine. Don't be sad and above all have confidence with the talent you have, you must feel very strong . I am sure that if you can realize your plans it will be a wonderful thing but very often it is difficult especially with these people around you. I am very happy with the trip you are making and look forward to the evening when you will tell me about the wonders you have discovered in this beautiful country. I kiss you very much. Don't forget me with Jean-Claude. See you soon. Hubert.”

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In the preface to the catalog of the exhibition entitled “Janine Janet, Métamorphoses” which was held at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in 2003, Hubert de Givenchy evokes his relationship with Janine Janet and Balenciaga:

“I had the pleasure of meeting Janine Janet, thanks to Mr. Balenciaga […]. The man I have always considered my master, since our meeting in 1953, then began a fruitful collaboration with the artist. Wanting to assert the exclusive and refined character of his fashion house, Cristobal Balenciaga did not want commercial objects to be displayed in his windows on Avenue George-V. He therefore entrusted Janine Janet with the task of installing them as he wished, with the only constraint being the requirement to offer a plastic equivalence to the luxury of the collections. For nearly fifteen years, Janine will deploy a treasure of imagination to renew her productions. These windows were admirable! Full of invention and fantasy. Each time we renewed them, it was amazement. And, very often, they caused crowds to gather in front of the Balenciaga house to admire them. Where most decorators were content with ephemeral installations, Janine Janet designed real sculptures, requiring immense work. I particularly remember these fantasy characters, The Perfumer, The Couturier and The Modiste, made with accessories corresponding to their different professions. But there were still these astonishing shell characters, these women made of straw and reed, these strange busts bristling with nails and many other creations which followed one another on Avenue George-V. In my turn, in a more modest way, I asked Janine for a few works. This is how she designed magnificent horses for the interior windows of my fashion house. The fruit of prodigious skill, they were entirely covered in trimmings. Another time, they were golden sphinxes, with disproportionately long necks, distant heirs of the fantasies of the 18th century. Passionate about metamorphoses, the play of transpositions which allows one to evoke one material with another, to suggest the element of an animal, plant or mineral kingdom by borrowing from others, she did other things for me: a rooster whose bodies were only immense parrot tulips, or baskets of flowers with petals and corollas made of colored stones. Finally there were these two extraordinary busts, one in red coral and the other in jet and amethyst, which I wanted to keep in my country house. I loved seeing Janine work. Her enthusiasm was surprising, tireless, she could have worked days and nights without stopping […]”.