Philippe Guibourgé was born on 22 July 1931 in Fontainebleau. He began drawing dresses for friends at fifteen, and after showing a sketch to Jacques Fath, then one of the stars of Paris couture, was taken on at his house, where he stayed for four years and helped create the Fath Université ready-to-wear line. He then spent three years at Lanvin alongside Antonio del Castillo.
In November 1960 he joined Christian Dior as assistant to Marc Bohan. Two years later he was given responsibility for Colifichets, the collection of daywear, après-ski and hostess clothes sold in the house's boutique, and for the studio that created Dior's licensed products. In 1967, with Adeline André, he created Miss Dior, the house's first true ready-to-wear line, presented with sixty-eight dresses, coats and suits; the New York Times called him an enfant terrible at Dior. He remained with the house for fifteen years.
In 1978 he joined Chanel, which until then had refused to sell ready-to-wear and mass-distributed accessories, as artistic director of Chanel Créations, a new line established by Parfums Chanel independently of the couture house. He translated the founder's codes into industrially produced clothes, jersey coats, skirt suits and braided trim, and built the manufacturing and retail base later inherited by Karl Lagerfeld. He left Chanel in 1982 to found his own label.
Known to professionals but almost unknown to the public, he was described by the Los Angeles Times as a ghost designer. He died in Clichy on 7 March 1986, aged 54.