Vintage Givenchy or What Katie Did?

Posted by Katherine Thomas on February 24, 2024

This week we take a little inspiration from Givenchy. The pleating on the skirt of the dress above, dated 1954, is almost identical to the pleats on our new Gladys dress.

Hubert de Givenchy is most famed for his work with Audrey Hepburn who he was apparently introduced to by Cristóbal Balenciaga, his mentor. Why mentioned Balenciaga? Find out at the bottom of this newsletter.

To add just a little more French flare the buckles for our Gladys dress were made to our design in Paris. The print was also designed in house and is exclusive to What Katie Did.

It’s purely coincidental that the pleating detail on both of these dresses are the same.

In fact, our Gladys dress is inspired by the pleating detail on a vintage dress I found in The Real McCoy, a vintage shop in Exeter, Devon, which I always pop into when I’m in the area. I guess, the maker, in turn, might have been inspired by Givenchy but it's nice to be able to put a date to the original style.

One set of my grandparents lived in Exeter so this dress is named after ‘Grandma in Exeter’: Gladys.