Born in
Saint Petersburg, Russia on September 4, 1900, Hoyningen-Huene was the only son of Baron Barthold Theodor Hermann (Theodorevitch) von Hoyningen-Huene (1859–1942), a Baltic nobleman, military officer and lord of Navesti manor (near
Võhma), and his wife, Emily Anne "Nan" Lothrop (1860–1927), a daughter of
George Van Ness Lothrop, an American minister to Russia. (The couple was married in Detroit, Michigan, in 1888.) He had two sisters. Helen (died 1976) became a fashion designer in France and the United States, using the name Helen de Huene.
Elizabeth (1891–1973), also known as Betty, also became a fashion designer (using the name Mme. Yteb in the 1920s and 1930s). During the
Russian Revolution, the Hoyningen-Huenes fled first to London, and later to Paris. He served as a
Sergeant in the
British Army during
World War One. By 1925 George had already worked his way up to chief of photography of the French
Vogue where he was mentored by up-and-coming photographers including
François Tuefferd. In 1931 he met
Horst, the future photographer, who became his lover and frequent model and traveled to England with him that winter. While there, they visited photographer
Cecil Beaton, who was working for the British edition of
Vogue. In 1931, Horst began his association with
Vogue, publishing his first photograph in the French edition in November of that year. ==United States==