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Charvet (shirtmaker)
Encyclopedia
Charvet Place Vendôme, pronounced ʃaʁvɛ plas vɑ̃dɔm, or simply Charvet, is a French high-end shirt
maker and tailor
located at 28 place Vendôme
in Paris. It designs, produces and sells bespoke
and ready-to-wear
shirt
s, necktie
s, blouse
s, pyjamas and suits
, in the Paris store and internationally through luxury retailers.
The world's first ever shirt shop, Charvet was founded in 1838. Since the 19th century, it has supplied bespoke shirts and haberdasher
y to kings, princes and heads of state. It has acquired an international reputation for the high quality of its products, the level of its service and the wide range of its designs and colors. Thanks to the renown of its ties, charvet
has become a generic name for a certain type of silk fabric used for ties.
Its exceptionally long history is associated with many famous customers, some of them infatuated with the brand. Also, writers have often expressed their characters' identity through references to Charvet.
His father Jean-Pierre, native of Strasbourg
, had been "curator of the wardrobe" for Napoleon Bonaparte,, a position created at the beginning of the Empire. The curator assisted the chamberlain
or "master of the wardrobe", who supervised all aspects of the emperor's wardrobe — updating the inventories, placing orders, paying bills, and establishing regulations. This position was initially held, between 1804 and 1811 by count Augustin de Rémusat
. When it appeared in 1811 Rémusat was mismanaging the wardrobe, an inventory was requested to Jean-Pierre Charvet, and Rémusat was replaced by count Henri de Turenne d'Aynac. Christofle's uncle, Étienne Charvet, was the steward of the château de Malmaison
and later of the château de Saint Cloud. Étienne Charvet's daughter Louise Caroline Catherine (1791–1861), Christofle's first cousin
, married at the age of 14 Constant, Napoleon's head valet. The marriage was arranged by Napoleon himself, who signed the marriage contract. She became in 1813 a linen keeper at the château de Saint Cloud, therefore responsible for making the imperial shirts. Her portrait (Figure, right) was bequested to the Malmaison
museum in 1929 by Édouard Charvet. Constant and his wife Louise did not to follow Napoleon in his exile to Elba
, an "enormous mistake" according to Christofle's father. Instead, they moved to Elbeuf
and invested in a weaving factory, created by Louise's brother Jean-Pierre and specialized in novelty fabrics for pants and lady coats.
Christofle Charvet created the first shirtmaker store in Paris, for which the new term chemisier (shirtmaker) was coined., Previously, shirts were generally made by linen keepers with fabric provided by the customer, but in this store of a new kind, clients were measured, fabric selected and shirts made on site. The development of this specialty trade was favored by a change in men's fashion, with more importance given to the waistcoat and the shirt collar, which called for more propositions for the shirt front and a technical change. Previously, shirts were cut by linen keepers entirely of rectangles and squares. There were no shaping seams and no need for shirt patterns. The new interest for a closer fitting shirt led to curving the armhole and neckline or adding a shoulder yoke, by application to the shirt of tailoring techniques. The new kind of shirt was called chemise à pièce (yoked shirt). Alan Flusser
credits Christofle Charvet with the original design of a collar that could be turned down or folded, much in the manner of contemporary collars, and the concept of the detachable collar.
In 1839, Charvet already had some imitators (See figure, right), but still the "best supply". The same year, Charvet held the title of official shirtmaker to the Jockey Club
, a very exclusive Parisian circle, then headed by prince
Napoléon Joseph Ney
and inspired by count Alfred d'Orsay
, a famous French dandy
. It had about 250 members, mostly aristocrats, who, despite the name of their club, were more interested in elegance than horses. Being a member was a necessary step in order to become a lion, the term used then for a dandy
. In an advertisement of March 1839, Charvet, presenting himself as the Club's shirtmaker, claimed to offer "elegance, perfection, moderate prices". Soon after, the claim to moderate prices was dropped.
Joseph-Édouard Charvet, known as Édouard Charvet, (1842–1928) succeeded his father Christofle in 1868. He in turn was joined in the early 20th century by his three sons, Étienne, Raymond and Paul.
The store was initially located on the rue de Richelieu
, at n° 103 and later at n°93.
It moved to n° 25, place Vendôme
in 1877., This move reflected a shift in the center of the Parisian high society
and the growing importance of the palais Garnier
against the Théâtre Italien, closer to Charvet's original location. Though Charvet began to offer women's blouse
s and men's suits
in its new store, men's shirts remained the house's specialty. An American journalist, visiting the store in 1909, reported "there were shirts of every variety and almost every color [,] artistic enough to make one long for them all, and each and every one most beautifully made." The store was noted for its displays, compared in 1906 to Loie Fuller
performances, and Charvet paid an "immense salary" to the window decorator, who displayed "each day a new series", producing "veritable works of art in his harmonious combinations of scarves and handkerchiefs and hosiery".
In 1921,, the store moved to n° 8, place Vendôme.
In 1982, it moved to its current location, at n° 28.
Charvet remains the oldest shop on place Vendôme, which explains both the inclusion of the location into the firm's name, and the use as a logo
of the sun device ornating the balconies of the Place, which was built in honor of Louis XIV, the Sun King.
. The jury noted that Parisian shirt makers had an "unquestionable supremacy".,Again, at the next Paris World's fair
, Charvet exhibited shirts, drawers, vests and handkerchieves and the Jury noted luxury shirts were a Parisian "monopoly". When the king-to-be Edward VII visited the fair, he ordered Parisian shirts, as many other foreign visitors did, and remained a loyal customer of Charvet, "honoring him during forty years with a special kindness" (See List of Charvet customers). Charvet created for the prince of Wales a certain style of shirt collar, the stand-up turn-down collar, also referred to as the H.R.H. collar, which became very popular at the end of the 19th century (Figure, right).
In 1863, Charvet was considered the first producer of fine shirts in Paris, claiming superiority "for taste and for elegance" on cuffs, bib and fit. Charvet's store was a "very important" destination for English visitors in Paris. In the following years, Charvet developed its specialization in royal trousseaux. In 1878, he won a silver medal at the World Fair
and a gold medal at the 1889 Paris World's fair
, for which the Eiffel tower
was built. When it won the latter, the jury noted: "Fine shirts remain the property and glory of Paris. To be convinced of it, it is sufficient to give a look to the displays of the companies specialized in royal haberdasher
y". Other royal patrons confirmed this princely speciality of Charvet, such as Alfonso XII of Spain
(1878), Antoine, duke of Montpensier
(1879), Philippe, comte de Paris
(1893), and sultan Abdul Hamid II
(See List of Charvet customers).
The clientele of Charvet also included artists such as Charles Baudelaire
, who gave a metaphysical dimension to dandyism, George Sand
, whose lover Alfred de Musset
never succeeded to become a member of the Jockey Club, Édouard Manet
, nicknamed the "dandy of painting" or Jacques Offenbach
, composer of La Vie Parisienne. In 1893, when he tried to enter the Académie française
, Verlaine
had himself photographed wearing a "very beautiful Charvet scarf" (Figure, left). Allegedly, a gift of 100,000 francs to "the greatest poet of our time, Verlaine", was the stake of a bet between Edmond de Polignac
and Robert de Montesquiou
. Having lost the bet, Montesquiou "naturally kept the 100,000 francs but gave Verlaine a very beautiful scarf". Upon hearing the story, Polignac cut all relations with Montesquiou., Nevertheless some other writers consider this story as a legend circulated by Montesquiou himself, as no document establishes the existence of this bet and Montesquiou was almost the only one in the elegant and cultured world to care for Verlaine.
In 1894, an administrative report praised Charvet for constantly seeking high-novelty and setting the trend for other Parisian shirtmakers, having irreproachable manufacturing standards, and successfully enticing French factories to produce the raw materials traditionally supplied by England.
After his 1897 portrait by Giovanni Boldini
, Montesquiou's dandyism became famous and made him a frequent subject of caricatures. In 1903 a French satirical magazine illustrated by a caricature from Sem
to which Marcel Proust
alluded in a letter to Montesquiou, had Montesquiou saying: "Nobody in the world ever saw such things! Pinks, blues, lilacs, in silk, and in cobweb! Charvet is the greatest artist in the Creation." In a letter to Montesquiou, alludes to the caricature by Sem
of Montesquiou examining products at Charvet (Figure, right).
IIn 1905, Charvet, then also established in London, at 45 New Bond St, and “rumored” to be contemplating an establishment in New York, was considered the "foremost haberdashery of Paris and London". Its customers included not only the royal, such as Alfonso XIII of Spain
(warrant granted in 1913); Edward VIII, duke of Windsor
; the French president Paul Deschanel
, noted for his elegant Charvet cravats; but also members of the high society gravitating around dandies such as Robert de Montesquiou
and Evander Berry Wall
, or artists as Jean Cocteau
, who called Charvet "magic" and wrote that it is "where the rainbow finds ideas", and his friend Sergei Diaghilev
. According to Proust, whose shirts, ties and waistcoats were from Charvet, maybe by imitation of Montesquiou, the latter was "the sign of a certain world, of a certain elegance"., Proust also spent long moments at Charvet in search of a perfect tone for his cravats, such as a "creamy pink". His tank tops (marcel in French) also came from Charvet. In his Remembrance of Things Past (1919), Marcel, the narrator, waiting for the appointed hour of his lunch engagement at Swann's house, whiles away his time "tightening from time to time the knot of [his] magnificent Charvet tie". In 1908, Charvet won a Grand Prix at the London Exhibition
.
In 1901, Charvet opened a laundry at 3, rue des Capucines, next to his store, considered by some to be the first established in Paris, a fact which later led some others to assume Charvet's laundry business had predated shirtmaking.
It was advertised as applying Pasteur
's and Grancher
's principles., In 1903, Charvet moved his "model laundry", to the place du Marché Saint Honoré, on premises belonging to the city of Paris, which specially authorized him in view of an innovative ozone
-based process, then licensed to the Parisian hospitals. The soiled clothes, picked at the customer's house by “special cars”, was disinfected and bleached with ozone, then soaked in a diastatic solution, in order to remove the starch and make the linen whiter, subsequently washed in soap and water, afterwards in a solution of ammonia to remove the soap, then whitened, starched, calendered and hand ironed. The process was considered a model both for the quality of the output and for the care taken of the health of the workers. A "surprising" number of laundry was sent over by British customers. Like many other foreign customers, William Stewart Halsted
and William H. Welch
regularly sent their shirts to be laundered to Charvet in Paris. Promotional stamps were produced for this laundry business and became collectible. In 1906, a branch of the laundry was opened 1, rue du Colisée, near the Champs-Élysées
. During World War I, Charvet significantly reduced the price of its laundry services to keep sufficient work for all his employees. Towards the end of the war, the shortage of coal severely hit Charvet's laundry activity. The "model laundry" of place du marché Saint Honoré was discontinued in 1933 when the place was restructured.
Charvet shirts were imported into the United States as early as 1853 (See figure right). By 1860, Charvet's shirts turnover was equally divided between luxury bespoke shirts sold in the Paris store and ready made shirts for export, particularly to Russia, Great-Britain and Havana. Also, following the custom of the time, designs and models were sold to American stores, to be locally reproduced., Nevertheless, into the middle of the 20th century, Charvet was selling only bespoke shirts in the Paris store. In 1908, Charvet was the first European company to import American suits hand tailored in Chicago.,
The name Charvet was so well known that it became associated with a certain silk fabric for ties (See Charvet (fabric)
). Charvet's notability also extended to other items of clothing, such as shirts, shirtings, ties, gloves, dress suits
, waistcoats
,, undergarments, pocketchieves, and women waistbands or shirtwaists (See figures left), worn with special models of ties for ladies, such as one called le juge modelled after a judge's lappets. The Chicago Tribune reported in 1909 that Charvet was showing "scarf pins that match in color any scarf that may be bought and some have the same designs carried out in them done in enamel. There are also waistcoasts buttons to be worn with certain ties and there are sets of these, cufflinks, and pins, all of which exactly match".
In the early 20th century, Charvet launched a toilet water, in a rectangular bevel
ed bottle. One of the customers for this perfume was Boy Capel
, Coco Chanel
's lover. In 1921, two years after his accidental death, the flacon of Chanel's famous Nº 5 perfume was produced in the image of the Charvet bottle.
Like many European companies, Charvet was greatly affected by World War I: "our looms have been destroyed, our collections pillaged, our printing blocks burned". Nevertheless it continued to send representatives to the United States to show collections of novelties.
style, Charvet, along with fashion designer Paul Poiret
, started to commission art work from the French painter Raoul Dufy
, the "granddaddy of modem chic", through the French weaver Bianchini-Férier. Some of the first were related to the war, such as Les Alliés or the Victory Rooster (Figure, left). This was followed by more silk squares, woven silk fabrics for vests, and printed ramie
fabrics for dressing gowns and shirts. Some famous customers of the period were fashion designer Coco Chanel
, and the Maharadjah of Patiala who once placed a single order of 86 dozen shirts.
In the late 1920s, Charvet was considered to produce "the finest cravats in the world", with either conservative designs or “decidedly original” patterns, such as postage-stamps, (See below) or much more “modernist” patterns. The company developed a practice of sending merchandises to its customers for approval, allowing them to select some or none and return the rest, subsequently referred to as the Charvet method. It conceived a range of free-form bold printed tie patterns which gained wide popularity in the USA. "Its chic was in their unfussy, nonchalant bearing. To the delight of their many admirers, the Charvets' open settings facilitated blending with all kind of fancy suits [...] The original Charvet prints became the first, and regrettably almost the last, bold figured necktie to symbolize upper-class taste". Some such bold Charvet Art Deco ties which had belonged to John Ringling are on display at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
. These patterns, for which charvet became a generic name,, "foreshadowed" the colorful designs which became popular after the war
. The company also produced beach linen robes with patterns up to two feet in diameter.
In the 1930s, some window displays were made by painters as André Derain
or Maurice de Vlaminck
.
When in 1965 the Charvet heirs sought to sell the firm, they were contacted by an American buyer. The French government, knowing Charvet had been for a long time General de Gaulle's shirtmaker, grew concerned. The French Ministry of Industry instructed Denis Colban, Charvet's main supplier, to locate a French buyer. Rather than approaching investors he decided to purchase the company himself.
Until then, Charvet was operated in much the same way as it had been since its foundation: a customer was shown only what he requested, in most cases something fairly conservative. After Mr. Colban bought the firm, things changed. The change started when Baron Rothschild
came into the store and asked to see some shirting fabrics, one of which was pink. When M. Colban, following previous Charvet practice, advised against the color, the Baron retorted, "If not for me, who is it for?" Some time later, Nelson Rockefeller
requested some shirt swatches be sent to New York. Bold stripes and unusual colors were sent and eventually selected. Colban had changed Charvet's policies as well as its role in the design process with the customer. A wide range of products was put on display, transforming the store in a "veritable casbah" of colors and "almost edible" fabrics. Colban also brought significant changes to the aspect of the store, having all the venerable furniture varnish
ed in black. He created new lines of products and started ready-to-wear finely made shirts for men and women. A few years after, he was one of the first of many famous European shops and designers to sell ready-to-wear
shirts, ties and accessories to Bergdorf Goodman
., However, even while developing these new pre-made lines of products, Colban always insisted on the bespoke
aspect of the firm as its core identity. He emphasised that "the essential hardest of all to accomplish in today's world of quick and easy pseudo solutions, is an atmosphere of 'yes' to the customer and, even more, a respect for that commitment", re-iterating the focus of Charvet on its bespoke business.
Colban refused numerous offers to sell the company, maintaining the single store in Paris and continuing the house as a family business. After his death in 1994, the company has been managed by his two children, Anne-Marie and Jean-Claude.
Modern customers include French presidents François Mitterrand
and Jacques Chirac
, American presidents John F. Kennedy
and Ronald Reagan
, French actors Catherine Deneuve
and Philippe Noiret
, American movie stars Sofia Coppola
and Bruce Willis
, fashion designers Yves Saint Laurent and Jasper Conran
(See also: List of Charvet customers.).
The goal of the company is to give its customers the option to custom order or customize everything it sells, from neckwear (including bow tie
s) to underwear, with "the idea that a garment that carries a personal stamp exceeds any other form of luxury", though avoiding "bling bling mentality". Bolts of fabric on display throughout the store can be held against oneself to see how they really look. Charvet creates exclusive fabrics for all its collections and prides itself of going a long way to satisfy customers, remaking on request ties purchased years earlier or changing a shirt's frayed collar and cuffs.
The store is located in one of the hôtels particuliers that surround the Place Vendôme
, Number 28. This building has a three-story Jules Hardouin Mansart
facade
, behind which Charvet occupies seven floors, each owner on the Place having built to his own needs. This is the only store directly operated by Charvet. It is open from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, Monday through Saturday.
True to Denis Colban's merchandising ideas, the ground floor offers a contrast between the formality of the setting and the seemingly informal abundance of silk accessories, from ties to scarves to the "signature" silk passementerie-knot cufflinks invented here. Each necktie comes in at least two dozen colorways and new designs arrive each week.
Ready-to-wear shirts and at-home clothing are displayed on the fourth floor, ready-to-wear blouses on the second floor, and children's shirts on the first floor, but the third floor is dedicated to bespoke shirtmaking. This "centre of the universe for shirt aficionados" could be the largest selection of fine shirtings in the world, with over 6,000 different fabrics, including a "legendary" Mur des Blancs (Wall of Whites) of four hundred different white fabrics in 104 shades of white and another of two hundred solid blues. Cutomers can "debate not just the shade of white, not just the choice of cuff, not just the angle, depth and proportion of the collar, but also the infinitesimal differences in the weight of the interlining in collar and cuff and how this can and should be varied between formal, semi-formal and casual shirts". The richly colored and unique" fabrics are presented in full bolts, not on swatch cards. Most of them are designed in-house by Charvet, for its own exclusive use and woven from specially chosen gossypium barbadense
cotton from the Nile delta. About a thousand new patterns are introduced each year, all of them registered. The Charvet stripes are often multicolored, asymmetric, thinner than English stripes, softer and subtler in the matching of shades.,
Men's custom tailoring is on the sixth floor, which has the atmosphere of a men's club. Some 4,500 bolts of fabric are on display there, and the walls are hung with 1960s' fashion illustrations of Dean Martin
look-alikes drawn by Jean Choiselat.
expresses French classicism
, and has been considered a paradigm
of the care for quality in luxury products. In particular, a lot of attention is given to the regularity of stitches
and the matching of patterns. On a typical striped ready-to-wear shirt and unlike most other makes, the placket
is matched with the front, the face of the collar with the bottom, the collar stripes line up with the yoke stripes, the yoke stripes with the sleeve stripes, the sleeve stripes with the sleeve placket
stripes,and finally the match the shade of yarn used for the buttonholes is matched to the stripe, the whole process creating the feeling the shirt is all one piece. The yoke is one-piece and curved to follow the back. The left cuff
is made one-quarter inch longer than the right to allow for the watch. The allowance is lower for made to order shirts. the cuff is made more or less wide, depending if the customer wants his watch to remain hidden under the cuff or to show. According to a Charvet representative, many customers have two different types of shirts: those for evening wear, intended to be worn with a flat watch, and the others for day wear, with a thicker watch. For men, shirt tails are square and vented
for a clean look. For women, they are rounded, with a signature side-seam gusset
. The collar is very clean-cut, made from six layers of unfused cloth for a dressy, yet not stiff, appearance. Instead, a free floating stiffener aims to provide more comfort and a better shape. The stitching
on a standard collar is four millimeters from the edge. The stitching of the top and the edges are precise and well-planned. There are twenty stitches per inch. Buttons are made from Australian mother-of-pearl, cut from the surface of the oyster shell
for added strength and greater color clarity. For formal shirts, bibs are hand pleated. Though its traditional ready-to-wear shirts are trim, the company has also introduced in 2009 a "slim fit" line.
A bespoke shirt requires a minimum of 28 measurements and an initial version made in basic cotton. The fit is "full and snug at the same time". The minimum order is one shirt. There are only fifty shirt-makers working in the Saint-Gaultier
atelier and only one person works on a shirt at a time, whether custom or ready-to-wear,doing everything except for the buttonhole
s and pressing the shirt. Each shirt takes thirty days to complete.
.,
silk, of a high yarn count
, often enhanced by the addition of a hidden color, producing a dense fabric which goes through a proprietary finishing
to acquire lustre
, fluidity
and resilience
and achieve the right knot. The company develops its own exclusive patterns and colors. It creates about 8,000 models per year, Jacquard woven
on exclusive commission, with silk either alone or mixed with other precious yarns, such as cashmere
, camel hair
, bamboo yarn
or covered with laminate
d precious metals, such as silver, gold or platinum
,, with techniques
dating back to the 14th century when the pope
s were based in Avignon
,, which were also used in the 1920s for vests. Further to a long history of brocade patterns, first used in the 19th century for vests and then for ties, Charvet is considered to offer the largest range of woven silk neckties in the world. The ties collection, sometime "unmistakably bold" or "witty [and] wicked", often noted for its shimmer and changing colors (Charvet ties' shimmer "has become so synonymous with the company that we call it the Charvet effect", says a retailer.), uses about 5,000 shades in over 100,000 combinations.,
Ties are made from three pieces of silk material cut at a 45-degree angle. They are sewn entirely by hand before being hand folded into shape. Sevenfold ties are available on order. Until the 1960s, nearly all Charvet ties were sevenfold. The company then decided an interlining
could bring an improvement, helping protect the shape despite the pulling, and designed a proprietary interlining "which helps the silk keep its resilience and spring, but is not an obstruction when you tie a knot".
The company produced a range of political ties for the 2008 American presidential campaign
.,
During the 1950s, it invented a special style of bow tie
, a cross between a batwing and a butterfly, for the Duke of Windsor
, now referred to as the "Charvet cut".
The eponym
ous style n° 30 of the book on the 188 styles of tie knots is a three layered bow-tie worn by a woman, the constitutive ribbons being stitched together behind the neck.
process, measurements are taken, a basted canvas is built around the customer, then disassembled and traced onto paper, after which there are two more fittings. The suit is hand-sewn.
by its external appearance, such as elegance, nobility, wealth or occupation. Examples of Charvet's "brand emotion" are literary allusions where the reference to the brand denotes
a character's taste or some of his psychological traits such as cheerfulness, detachment, eccentricity, decadence or mischief.
or Bernard-Henri Lévy
, "became synonymous with Charvet".
Shirt
A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body. Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for almost any garment other than outerwear such as sweaters, coats, jackets, or undergarments such as bras, vests or base layers...
maker and tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
located at 28 place Vendôme
Place Vendôme
Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the...
in Paris. It designs, produces and sells bespoke
Bespoke
Bespoke is a term employed in a variety of applications to mean an item custom-made to the buyer's specification...
and ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear or prêt-à-porter is the term for factory-made clothing, sold in finished condition, in standardized sizes, as distinct from made to measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a particular person's frame. Off-the-peg is sometimes used for items which are not clothing.Ready-to-wear has...
shirt
Shirt
A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body. Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for almost any garment other than outerwear such as sweaters, coats, jackets, or undergarments such as bras, vests or base layers...
s, necktie
Necktie
A necktie is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck...
s, blouse
Blouse
A blouse is a loose-fitting upper garment that was formerly worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women and children. It is typically gathered at the waist so that it hangs loosely over the wearer's body. Today, the word most commonly refers to a woman's shirt but can also refer to a man's shirt if...
s, pyjamas and suits
Suit (clothing)
In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in the United Kingdom as country wear...
, in the Paris store and internationally through luxury retailers.
The world's first ever shirt shop, Charvet was founded in 1838. Since the 19th century, it has supplied bespoke shirts and haberdasher
Haberdasher
A haberdasher is a person who sells small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons, zips, and other notions. In American English, haberdasher is another term for a men's outfitter. A haberdasher's shop or the items sold therein are called haberdashery.-Origin and use:The word appears in...
y to kings, princes and heads of state. It has acquired an international reputation for the high quality of its products, the level of its service and the wide range of its designs and colors. Thanks to the renown of its ties, charvet
Charvet (fabric)
A Charvet fabric is woven of silk or acetate in warp-faced rib weave, of a reversed reps type with a double ridge effect. The fabric's name derives from its frequent and "clever" use in the 19th century by the Parisian shirtmaker Charvet. It is characterized by a soft handle and shiny appearance...
has become a generic name for a certain type of silk fabric used for ties.
Its exceptionally long history is associated with many famous customers, some of them infatuated with the brand. Also, writers have often expressed their characters' identity through references to Charvet.
Foundation
The store was founded in 1836 or in 1838 by Joseph-Christophe Charvet, known as Christofle Charvet (1809–1870).,His father Jean-Pierre, native of Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, had been "curator of the wardrobe" for Napoleon Bonaparte,, a position created at the beginning of the Empire. The curator assisted the chamberlain
Grand Chamberlain of France
The Grand Chamberlain of France was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France, a member of the Maison du Roi , and one of the Great Offices of the Maison du Roi during the Ancien Régime...
or "master of the wardrobe", who supervised all aspects of the emperor's wardrobe — updating the inventories, placing orders, paying bills, and establishing regulations. This position was initially held, between 1804 and 1811 by count Augustin de Rémusat
Charles de Rémusat
Charles François Marie, Comte de Rémusat , was a French politician and writer.-Biography:He was born in Paris. His father, Auguste Laurent, Comte de Rémusat, of a good family of Toulouse, was chamberlain to Napoleon Bonaparte, but acquiesced in the restoration and became prefect first of Haute...
. When it appeared in 1811 Rémusat was mismanaging the wardrobe, an inventory was requested to Jean-Pierre Charvet, and Rémusat was replaced by count Henri de Turenne d'Aynac. Christofle's uncle, Étienne Charvet, was the steward of the château de Malmaison
Château de Malmaison
The Château de Malmaison is a country house in the city of Rueil-Malmaison about 12 km from Paris.It was formerly the residence of Joséphine de Beauharnais, and with the Tuileries, was from 1800 to 1802 the headquarters of the French government.-History:Joséphine de Beauharnais bought the...
and later of the château de Saint Cloud. Étienne Charvet's daughter Louise Caroline Catherine (1791–1861), Christofle's first cousin
Cousin
In kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares one or more common ancestors. The term is rarely used when referring to a relative in one's immediate family where there is a more specific term . The term "blood relative" can be used synonymously and establishes the existence of...
, married at the age of 14 Constant, Napoleon's head valet. The marriage was arranged by Napoleon himself, who signed the marriage contract. She became in 1813 a linen keeper at the château de Saint Cloud, therefore responsible for making the imperial shirts. Her portrait (Figure, right) was bequested to the Malmaison
Château de Malmaison
The Château de Malmaison is a country house in the city of Rueil-Malmaison about 12 km from Paris.It was formerly the residence of Joséphine de Beauharnais, and with the Tuileries, was from 1800 to 1802 the headquarters of the French government.-History:Joséphine de Beauharnais bought the...
museum in 1929 by Édouard Charvet. Constant and his wife Louise did not to follow Napoleon in his exile to Elba
Elba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...
, an "enormous mistake" according to Christofle's father. Instead, they moved to Elbeuf
Elbeuf
-Population:-Places of interest:* The mairie, also housing the museum.* Two seventeenth century churches.* Some sixteenth century houses.* A fifteenth century stone cross.* The theatre , renovated in the late twentieth century.-Notable people:...
and invested in a weaving factory, created by Louise's brother Jean-Pierre and specialized in novelty fabrics for pants and lady coats.
Alan Flusser
Alan J. Flusser is an American author and designer of men's clothing. In 1979 he founded Alan Flusser Designs. He won the 1983 Coty Award as Top Menswear Designer, and received the Cutty Sark Award in 1987...
credits Christofle Charvet with the original design of a collar that could be turned down or folded, much in the manner of contemporary collars, and the concept of the detachable collar.
In 1839, Charvet already had some imitators (See figure, right), but still the "best supply". The same year, Charvet held the title of official shirtmaker to the Jockey Club
Jockey-Club de Paris
The Jockey Club de Paris is best remembered as a gathering of the elite of nineteenth-century French society. The club still exists at 2 rue Rabelais, and hosts the International Federation of Racing Authorities...
, a very exclusive Parisian circle, then headed by prince
Prince de la Moskowa
The titles of Duc d'Elchingen and Prince de la Moskowa were created by Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, for the Marshal of France Michel Ney. Both were victory titles; Ney was created duc d'Elchingen in 1808, after the Battle of Elchingen, and prince de la Moskowa in 1812, after the Battle of...
Napoléon Joseph Ney
Napoléon Joseph Ney
Napoléon Joseph Ney, 2nd Prince de la Moskowa, was a French politician.- Biography :Elder son of Michel Ney. Born in Paris in 1803, his godfather was Napoléon. He married in 1828 the daughter of the banker Pierre Laffite.-Sources:...
and inspired by count Alfred d'Orsay
Alfred Guillaume Gabriel, Count D'Orsay
Alfred d'Orsay, known as the comte d'Orsay was a French amateur artist, dandy, and man of fashion in the early- to mid-19th century.-Life:...
, a famous French dandy
Dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self...
. It had about 250 members, mostly aristocrats, who, despite the name of their club, were more interested in elegance than horses. Being a member was a necessary step in order to become a lion, the term used then for a dandy
Dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self...
. In an advertisement of March 1839, Charvet, presenting himself as the Club's shirtmaker, claimed to offer "elegance, perfection, moderate prices". Soon after, the claim to moderate prices was dropped.
Joseph-Édouard Charvet, known as Édouard Charvet, (1842–1928) succeeded his father Christofle in 1868. He in turn was joined in the early 20th century by his three sons, Étienne, Raymond and Paul.
Location
Rue de Richelieu
Rue de Richelieu is a long street of Paris, starting in the south of the Ier arrondissement, ending in the IIe arrondissement. For the first half of the nineteenth century, before Baron Hausmann redefined Paris with grand boulevards, it was one of the most fashionable streets of Paris:The Rue de...
, at n° 103 and later at n°93.
It moved to n° 25, place Vendôme
Place Vendôme
Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the...
in 1877., This move reflected a shift in the center of the Parisian high society
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
and the growing importance of the palais Garnier
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
against the Théâtre Italien, closer to Charvet's original location. Though Charvet began to offer women's blouse
Blouse
A blouse is a loose-fitting upper garment that was formerly worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women and children. It is typically gathered at the waist so that it hangs loosely over the wearer's body. Today, the word most commonly refers to a woman's shirt but can also refer to a man's shirt if...
s and men's suits
Suit (clothing)
In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in the United Kingdom as country wear...
in its new store, men's shirts remained the house's specialty. An American journalist, visiting the store in 1909, reported "there were shirts of every variety and almost every color [,] artistic enough to make one long for them all, and each and every one most beautifully made." The store was noted for its displays, compared in 1906 to Loie Fuller
Loie Fuller
Loie Fuller Loie Fuller Loie Fuller (also Loïe Fuller; (January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928) was a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques.-Career:...
performances, and Charvet paid an "immense salary" to the window decorator, who displayed "each day a new series", producing "veritable works of art in his harmonious combinations of scarves and handkerchiefs and hosiery".
In 1921,, the store moved to n° 8, place Vendôme.
In 1982, it moved to its current location, at n° 28.
Charvet remains the oldest shop on place Vendôme, which explains both the inclusion of the location into the firm's name, and the use as a logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
of the sun device ornating the balconies of the Place, which was built in honor of Louis XIV, the Sun King.
International recognition
In 1855 Charvet exhibited shirts and drawers at the Paris World's fairExposition Universelle (1855)
The Exposition Universelle of 1855 was an International Exhibition held on the Champs-Elysées in Paris from May 15 to November 15, 1855. Its full official title was the Exposition Universelle des produits de l'Agriculture, de l'Industrie et des Beaux-Arts de Paris 1855.The exposition was a major...
. The jury noted that Parisian shirt makers had an "unquestionable supremacy".,Again, at the next Paris World's fair
Exposition Universelle (1867)
The Exposition Universelle of 1867 was a World Exposition held in Paris, France, in 1867.-Conception:In 1864, Emperor Napoleon III decreed that an international exposition should be held in Paris in 1867. A commission was appointed with Prince Jerome Napoleon as president, under whose direction...
, Charvet exhibited shirts, drawers, vests and handkerchieves and the Jury noted luxury shirts were a Parisian "monopoly". When the king-to-be Edward VII visited the fair, he ordered Parisian shirts, as many other foreign visitors did, and remained a loyal customer of Charvet, "honoring him during forty years with a special kindness" (See List of Charvet customers). Charvet created for the prince of Wales a certain style of shirt collar, the stand-up turn-down collar, also referred to as the H.R.H. collar, which became very popular at the end of the 19th century (Figure, right).
In 1863, Charvet was considered the first producer of fine shirts in Paris, claiming superiority "for taste and for elegance" on cuffs, bib and fit. Charvet's store was a "very important" destination for English visitors in Paris. In the following years, Charvet developed its specialization in royal trousseaux. In 1878, he won a silver medal at the World Fair
Exposition Universelle (1878)
The third Paris World's Fair, called an Exposition Universelle in French, was held from 1 May through to 10 November 1878. It celebrated the recovery of France after the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.-Construction:...
and a gold medal at the 1889 Paris World's fair
Exposition Universelle (1889)
The Exposition Universelle of 1889 was a World's Fair held in Paris, France from 6 May to 31 October 1889.It was held during the year of the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, an event traditionally considered as the symbol for the beginning of the French Revolution...
, for which the Eiffel tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
was built. When it won the latter, the jury noted: "Fine shirts remain the property and glory of Paris. To be convinced of it, it is sufficient to give a look to the displays of the companies specialized in royal haberdasher
Haberdasher
A haberdasher is a person who sells small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons, zips, and other notions. In American English, haberdasher is another term for a men's outfitter. A haberdasher's shop or the items sold therein are called haberdashery.-Origin and use:The word appears in...
y". Other royal patrons confirmed this princely speciality of Charvet, such as Alfonso XII of Spain
Alfonso XII of Spain
Alfonso XII was king of Spain, reigning from 1874 to 1885, after a coup d'état restored the monarchy and ended the ephemeral First Spanish Republic.-Early life and paternity:Alfonso was the son of Queen Isabella II of Spain, and...
(1878), Antoine, duke of Montpensier
Antoine, Duke of Montpensier
- Titles and styles:/*13 July 182421 September 1824: His Serene Highness Prince Antoine d'Orléans*21 September 18249 August 1830: His Royal Highness Prince Antoine d'Orléans...
(1879), Philippe, comte de Paris
Philippe, Comte de Paris
Philippe d'Orléans, Count of Paris was the grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French. He was a claimant to the French throne from 1848 until his death.-Early life:...
(1893), and sultan Abdul Hamid II
Abdul Hamid II
His Imperial Majesty, The Sultan Abdülhamid II, Emperor of the Ottomans, Caliph of the Faithful was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire...
(See List of Charvet customers).
The clientele of Charvet also included artists such as Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
, who gave a metaphysical dimension to dandyism, George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
, whose lover Alfred de Musset
Alfred de Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle from 1836.-Biography:Musset was born on 11 December 1810 in Paris...
never succeeded to become a member of the Jockey Club, Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
, nicknamed the "dandy of painting" or Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, composer of La Vie Parisienne. In 1893, when he tried to enter the Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
, Verlaine
Verlaine
Verlaine is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Province of Liege. On January 1, 2006 Verlaine had a total population of 3,507. The total area is 24.21 km² which gives a population density of 145 inhabitants per km². The municipality contains the villages...
had himself photographed wearing a "very beautiful Charvet scarf" (Figure, left). Allegedly, a gift of 100,000 francs to "the greatest poet of our time, Verlaine", was the stake of a bet between Edmond de Polignac
Prince Edmond de Polignac
Prince Edmond Melchior Jean Marie de Polignac was a French composer.- Heritage, prison sentence :Edmond was a descendant of one of the more illustrious families of France. His grandmother, the duchesse de Polignac, had been the close friend of Queen Marie-Antoinette...
and Robert de Montesquiou
Robert de Montesquiou
Marie Joseph Robert Anatole, comte de Montesquiou-Fézensac , was a French aesthete, Symbolist poet, art collector and dandy....
. Having lost the bet, Montesquiou "naturally kept the 100,000 francs but gave Verlaine a very beautiful scarf". Upon hearing the story, Polignac cut all relations with Montesquiou., Nevertheless some other writers consider this story as a legend circulated by Montesquiou himself, as no document establishes the existence of this bet and Montesquiou was almost the only one in the elegant and cultured world to care for Verlaine.
In 1894, an administrative report praised Charvet for constantly seeking high-novelty and setting the trend for other Parisian shirtmakers, having irreproachable manufacturing standards, and successfully enticing French factories to produce the raw materials traditionally supplied by England.
After his 1897 portrait by Giovanni Boldini
Giovanni Boldini
Giovanni Boldini was an Italian genre and portrait painter. According to , he was known as the "Master of Swish" because of his flowing style of painting.-Early life:...
, Montesquiou's dandyism became famous and made him a frequent subject of caricatures. In 1903 a French satirical magazine illustrated by a caricature from Sem
Georges Goursat
Georges Goursat , known as Sem, was a French caricaturist famous during the Belle Époque.-Youth :Georges Goursat was born and raised in an upper middle-class family of Périgueux...
to which Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
alluded in a letter to Montesquiou, had Montesquiou saying: "Nobody in the world ever saw such things! Pinks, blues, lilacs, in silk, and in cobweb! Charvet is the greatest artist in the Creation." In a letter to Montesquiou, alludes to the caricature by Sem
Georges Goursat
Georges Goursat , known as Sem, was a French caricaturist famous during the Belle Époque.-Youth :Georges Goursat was born and raised in an upper middle-class family of Périgueux...
of Montesquiou examining products at Charvet (Figure, right).
IIn 1905, Charvet, then also established in London, at 45 New Bond St, and “rumored” to be contemplating an establishment in New York, was considered the "foremost haberdashery of Paris and London". Its customers included not only the royal, such as Alfonso XIII of Spain
Alfonso XIII of Spain
Alfonso XIII was King of Spain from 1886 until 1931. His mother, Maria Christina of Austria, was appointed regent during his minority...
(warrant granted in 1913); Edward VIII, duke of Windsor
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
; the French president Paul Deschanel
Paul Deschanel
Paul Eugène Louis Deschanel was a French statesman. He served as President of France from 18 February 1920 to 21 September 1920.-Biography:...
, noted for his elegant Charvet cravats; but also members of the high society gravitating around dandies such as Robert de Montesquiou
Robert de Montesquiou
Marie Joseph Robert Anatole, comte de Montesquiou-Fézensac , was a French aesthete, Symbolist poet, art collector and dandy....
and Evander Berry Wall
Evander Berry Wall
Evander Berry Wall , was a New York dude who became famous in the 1880s for his extravagantly refined look.-A Young Prince Prodigal:He was the son of Charles Wall and Elizabeth A. Wall, and the brother of James R...
, or artists as Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
, who called Charvet "magic" and wrote that it is "where the rainbow finds ideas", and his friend Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev , usually referred to outside of Russia as Serge, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise.-Early life and career:...
. According to Proust, whose shirts, ties and waistcoats were from Charvet, maybe by imitation of Montesquiou, the latter was "the sign of a certain world, of a certain elegance"., Proust also spent long moments at Charvet in search of a perfect tone for his cravats, such as a "creamy pink". His tank tops (marcel in French) also came from Charvet. In his Remembrance of Things Past (1919), Marcel, the narrator, waiting for the appointed hour of his lunch engagement at Swann's house, whiles away his time "tightening from time to time the knot of [his] magnificent Charvet tie". In 1908, Charvet won a Grand Prix at the London Exhibition
Franco-British Exhibition (1908)
The Franco-British Exhibition was a large public fair held in London in the early years of the 20th Century. The exhibition attracted 8 million visitors and celebrated the Entente Cordiale signed in 1904 by the United Kingdom and France....
.
In 1901, Charvet opened a laundry at 3, rue des Capucines, next to his store, considered by some to be the first established in Paris, a fact which later led some others to assume Charvet's laundry business had predated shirtmaking.
It was advertised as applying Pasteur
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist born in Dole. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. His discoveries reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and he created the first vaccine for rabies and anthrax. His experiments...
's and Grancher
Jacques-Joseph Grancher
Jacques-Joseph Grancher was a French pediatrician who was born in Felletin. In 1865 he earned his medical degree, and afterwards was director of a pathological anatomy laboratory in Clamart . From 1885 until his death in 1907 he was director of Hôpital des Enfants Malades in Paris...
's principles., In 1903, Charvet moved his "model laundry", to the place du Marché Saint Honoré, on premises belonging to the city of Paris, which specially authorized him in view of an innovative ozone
Ozone
Ozone , or trioxygen, is a triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope...
-based process, then licensed to the Parisian hospitals. The soiled clothes, picked at the customer's house by “special cars”, was disinfected and bleached with ozone, then soaked in a diastatic solution, in order to remove the starch and make the linen whiter, subsequently washed in soap and water, afterwards in a solution of ammonia to remove the soap, then whitened, starched, calendered and hand ironed. The process was considered a model both for the quality of the output and for the care taken of the health of the workers. A "surprising" number of laundry was sent over by British customers. Like many other foreign customers, William Stewart Halsted
William Stewart Halsted
William Stewart Halsted was an American surgeon who emphasized strict aseptic technique during surgical procedures, was an early champion of newly discovered anesthetics, and introduced several new operations, including the radical mastectomy for breast cancer...
and William H. Welch
William H. Welch
William Henry Welch, M.D. was an American physician, pathologist, and medical school administrator. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at Johns Hopkins Hospital. William Henry Welch, M.D. (April 8, 1850 - April 30, 1934) was an American physician, pathologist, and medical school...
regularly sent their shirts to be laundered to Charvet in Paris. Promotional stamps were produced for this laundry business and became collectible. In 1906, a branch of the laundry was opened 1, rue du Colisée, near the Champs-Élysées
Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped horse-chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets and one of the most expensive strip of real estate in the world. The name is...
. During World War I, Charvet significantly reduced the price of its laundry services to keep sufficient work for all his employees. Towards the end of the war, the shortage of coal severely hit Charvet's laundry activity. The "model laundry" of place du marché Saint Honoré was discontinued in 1933 when the place was restructured.
Charvet shirts were imported into the United States as early as 1853 (See figure right). By 1860, Charvet's shirts turnover was equally divided between luxury bespoke shirts sold in the Paris store and ready made shirts for export, particularly to Russia, Great-Britain and Havana. Also, following the custom of the time, designs and models were sold to American stores, to be locally reproduced., Nevertheless, into the middle of the 20th century, Charvet was selling only bespoke shirts in the Paris store. In 1908, Charvet was the first European company to import American suits hand tailored in Chicago.,
The name Charvet was so well known that it became associated with a certain silk fabric for ties (See Charvet (fabric)
Charvet (fabric)
A Charvet fabric is woven of silk or acetate in warp-faced rib weave, of a reversed reps type with a double ridge effect. The fabric's name derives from its frequent and "clever" use in the 19th century by the Parisian shirtmaker Charvet. It is characterized by a soft handle and shiny appearance...
). Charvet's notability also extended to other items of clothing, such as shirts, shirtings, ties, gloves, dress suits
Suit (clothing)
In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in the United Kingdom as country wear...
, waistcoats
Vest
A vest is a garment covering the upper body. The term has different meanings around the world:Waistcoat :. This is called a waistcoat in the UK and many Commonwealth countries, or a vest in the US and Canada. It is often worn as part of formal attire, or as the third piece of a lounge...
,, undergarments, pocketchieves, and women waistbands or shirtwaists (See figures left), worn with special models of ties for ladies, such as one called le juge modelled after a judge's lappets. The Chicago Tribune reported in 1909 that Charvet was showing "scarf pins that match in color any scarf that may be bought and some have the same designs carried out in them done in enamel. There are also waistcoasts buttons to be worn with certain ties and there are sets of these, cufflinks, and pins, all of which exactly match".
In the early 20th century, Charvet launched a toilet water, in a rectangular bevel
Bevel
A beveled edge refers to an edge of a structure that is not perpendicular to the faces of the piece. The words bevel and chamfer overlap in usage; in general usage they are often interchanged, while in technical usage they may sometimes be differentiated as shown in the image at right.-Cutting...
ed bottle. One of the customers for this perfume was Boy Capel
Boy Capel
Captain Arthur Edward "Boy" Capel CBE was an English polo player, possibly best-remembered for being a lover and muse of fashion designer Coco Chanel.-Biography:...
, Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist thought, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the founder of one of the most famous fashion brands, Chanel...
's lover. In 1921, two years after his accidental death, the flacon of Chanel's famous Nº 5 perfume was produced in the image of the Charvet bottle.
Like many European companies, Charvet was greatly affected by World War I: "our looms have been destroyed, our collections pillaged, our printing blocks burned". Nevertheless it continued to send representatives to the United States to show collections of novelties.
Art Deco period
After 1912, with the development of the Art DecoArt Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
style, Charvet, along with fashion designer Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret was a French fashion designer. His contributions to twentieth-century fashion have been likened to Picasso's contributions to twentieth-century art.-Early life and career:...
, started to commission art work from the French painter Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy[p] was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events...
, the "granddaddy of modem chic", through the French weaver Bianchini-Férier. Some of the first were related to the war, such as Les Alliés or the Victory Rooster (Figure, left). This was followed by more silk squares, woven silk fabrics for vests, and printed ramie
Ramie
Ramie is a flowering plant in the nettle family Urticaceae, native to eastern Asia. It is a herbaceous perennial growing to 1–2.5 m tall; the leaves are heart-shaped, 7–15 cm long and 6–12 cm broad, and white on the underside with dense small hairs—this gives it a silvery appearance;...
fabrics for dressing gowns and shirts. Some famous customers of the period were fashion designer Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist thought, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the founder of one of the most famous fashion brands, Chanel...
, and the Maharadjah of Patiala who once placed a single order of 86 dozen shirts.
In the late 1920s, Charvet was considered to produce "the finest cravats in the world", with either conservative designs or “decidedly original” patterns, such as postage-stamps, (See below) or much more “modernist” patterns. The company developed a practice of sending merchandises to its customers for approval, allowing them to select some or none and return the rest, subsequently referred to as the Charvet method. It conceived a range of free-form bold printed tie patterns which gained wide popularity in the USA. "Its chic was in their unfussy, nonchalant bearing. To the delight of their many admirers, the Charvets' open settings facilitated blending with all kind of fancy suits [...] The original Charvet prints became the first, and regrettably almost the last, bold figured necktie to symbolize upper-class taste". Some such bold Charvet Art Deco ties which had belonged to John Ringling are on display at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is the state art museum of Florida, located in Sarasota, Florida. It was established in 1927 as the legacy of Mable and John Ringling for the people of Florida...
. These patterns, for which charvet became a generic name,, "foreshadowed" the colorful designs which became popular after the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The company also produced beach linen robes with patterns up to two feet in diameter.
In the 1930s, some window displays were made by painters as André Derain
André Derain
André Derain was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse.-Early years:...
or Maurice de Vlaminck
Maurice de Vlaminck
Maurice de Vlaminck was a French painter. Along with André Derain and Henri Matisse he is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 were united in their use of intense color.-Life:Maurice de Vlaminck was born in Paris to a family...
.
Colban's takeover
Until then, Charvet was operated in much the same way as it had been since its foundation: a customer was shown only what he requested, in most cases something fairly conservative. After Mr. Colban bought the firm, things changed. The change started when Baron Rothschild
Guy de Rothschild
Baron Guy Édouard Alphonse Paul de Rothschild was a French banker and member of the Rothschild family. He chaired the bank Rothschild Frères from 1967 to 1979, when it was nationalized by the French government, and maintained possessions in other French and foreign companies including Imerys...
came into the store and asked to see some shirting fabrics, one of which was pink. When M. Colban, following previous Charvet practice, advised against the color, the Baron retorted, "If not for me, who is it for?" Some time later, Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
requested some shirt swatches be sent to New York. Bold stripes and unusual colors were sent and eventually selected. Colban had changed Charvet's policies as well as its role in the design process with the customer. A wide range of products was put on display, transforming the store in a "veritable casbah" of colors and "almost edible" fabrics. Colban also brought significant changes to the aspect of the store, having all the venerable furniture varnish
Varnish
Varnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or film primarily used in wood finishing but also for other materials. Varnish is traditionally a combination of a drying oil, a resin, and a thinner or solvent. Varnish finishes are usually glossy but may be designed to produce satin or semi-gloss...
ed in black. He created new lines of products and started ready-to-wear finely made shirts for men and women. A few years after, he was one of the first of many famous European shops and designers to sell ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear or prêt-à-porter is the term for factory-made clothing, sold in finished condition, in standardized sizes, as distinct from made to measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a particular person's frame. Off-the-peg is sometimes used for items which are not clothing.Ready-to-wear has...
shirts, ties and accessories to Bergdorf Goodman
Bergdorf Goodman
Bergdorf Goodman is a luxury goods department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son Andrew Goodman....
., However, even while developing these new pre-made lines of products, Colban always insisted on the bespoke
Bespoke
Bespoke is a term employed in a variety of applications to mean an item custom-made to the buyer's specification...
aspect of the firm as its core identity. He emphasised that "the essential hardest of all to accomplish in today's world of quick and easy pseudo solutions, is an atmosphere of 'yes' to the customer and, even more, a respect for that commitment", re-iterating the focus of Charvet on its bespoke business.
Colban refused numerous offers to sell the company, maintaining the single store in Paris and continuing the house as a family business. After his death in 1994, the company has been managed by his two children, Anne-Marie and Jean-Claude.
Modern customers include French presidents François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
and Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
, American presidents John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, French actors Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
and Philippe Noiret
Philippe Noiret
Philippe Noiret was a French film actor.-Biography:Noiret's father was in the clothes trade. Philippe was an indifferent scholar and attended several prestigious Paris schools, including the Lycée Janson de Sailly. He failed several times to pass his baccalauréat exams, so he decided to study...
, American movie stars Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
and Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
, fashion designers Yves Saint Laurent and Jasper Conran
Jasper Conran
Jasper Alexander Thirlby Conran OBE is an English fashion designer. He is the son of the designer Sir Terence Conran and the author Shirley Conran.-Education:He was educated at Port Regis School and Bryanston School in the 1970s...
(See also: List of Charvet customers.).
Charvet today
Of the five most prominent French shirtmakers of the 20th century—Bouvin, Charvet, Poirier, Seelio, and Seymous—all but Charvet have closed their doors. It is also the only remaining shirtmaker on Place Vendôme. The company's concern for excellence has been considered an example of purpose drive.The goal of the company is to give its customers the option to custom order or customize everything it sells, from neckwear (including bow tie
Bow tie
The bow tie is a type of men's necktie. It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar in a symmetrical manner such that the two opposite ends form loops. Ready-tied bow ties are available, in which the distinctive bow is sewn into shape and the band around the neck incorporates a clip....
s) to underwear, with "the idea that a garment that carries a personal stamp exceeds any other form of luxury", though avoiding "bling bling mentality". Bolts of fabric on display throughout the store can be held against oneself to see how they really look. Charvet creates exclusive fabrics for all its collections and prides itself of going a long way to satisfy customers, remaking on request ties purchased years earlier or changing a shirt's frayed collar and cuffs.
Store
Place Vendôme
Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the...
, Number 28. This building has a three-story Jules Hardouin Mansart
Jules Hardouin Mansart
Jules Hardouin-Mansart was a French architect whose work is generally considered to be the apex of French Baroque architecture, representing the power and grandeur of Louis XIV...
facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
, behind which Charvet occupies seven floors, each owner on the Place having built to his own needs. This is the only store directly operated by Charvet. It is open from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, Monday through Saturday.
True to Denis Colban's merchandising ideas, the ground floor offers a contrast between the formality of the setting and the seemingly informal abundance of silk accessories, from ties to scarves to the "signature" silk passementerie-knot cufflinks invented here. Each necktie comes in at least two dozen colorways and new designs arrive each week.
Ready-to-wear shirts and at-home clothing are displayed on the fourth floor, ready-to-wear blouses on the second floor, and children's shirts on the first floor, but the third floor is dedicated to bespoke shirtmaking. This "centre of the universe for shirt aficionados" could be the largest selection of fine shirtings in the world, with over 6,000 different fabrics, including a "legendary" Mur des Blancs (Wall of Whites) of four hundred different white fabrics in 104 shades of white and another of two hundred solid blues. Cutomers can "debate not just the shade of white, not just the choice of cuff, not just the angle, depth and proportion of the collar, but also the infinitesimal differences in the weight of the interlining in collar and cuff and how this can and should be varied between formal, semi-formal and casual shirts". The richly colored and unique" fabrics are presented in full bolts, not on swatch cards. Most of them are designed in-house by Charvet, for its own exclusive use and woven from specially chosen gossypium barbadense
Gossypium barbadense
Gossypium barbadense, also known as extra long staple cotton as it generally has a staple of at least 1 3/8" or longer, is a species of cotton plant. Some types of ELS cotton are American Pima, Egyptian Giza, Indian Suvin, Chinese Xiniang, Sudanese Barakat, and Russian Tonkovoloknistyi...
cotton from the Nile delta. About a thousand new patterns are introduced each year, all of them registered. The Charvet stripes are often multicolored, asymmetric, thinner than English stripes, softer and subtler in the matching of shades.,
Men's custom tailoring is on the sixth floor, which has the atmosphere of a men's club. Some 4,500 bolts of fabric are on display there, and the walls are hung with 1960s' fashion illustrations of Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
look-alikes drawn by Jean Choiselat.
Shirts
The "unique" care for precision and symmetrySymmetry
Symmetry generally conveys two primary meanings. The first is an imprecise sense of harmonious or aesthetically pleasing proportionality and balance; such that it reflects beauty or perfection...
expresses French classicism
French Baroque and Classicism
17th-century French art is generally referred to as Baroque, but from the mid to late 17th century, French art is more often referred to as Neo-classicism, which implies an adherence to certain rules of proportion and sobriety uncharacteristic of the Baroque as it was practiced in Southern and...
, and has been considered a paradigm
Paradigm
The word paradigm has been used in science to describe distinct concepts. It comes from Greek "παράδειγμα" , "pattern, example, sample" from the verb "παραδείκνυμι" , "exhibit, represent, expose" and that from "παρά" , "beside, beyond" + "δείκνυμι" , "to show, to point out".The original Greek...
of the care for quality in luxury products. In particular, a lot of attention is given to the regularity of stitches
Sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...
and the matching of patterns. On a typical striped ready-to-wear shirt and unlike most other makes, the placket
Placket
A placket is an opening in the upper part of trousers or skirts, or at the neck or sleeve of a garment. Plackets are almost always used to allow clothing to be put on or removed easily, but are sometimes used purely as a design element...
is matched with the front, the face of the collar with the bottom, the collar stripes line up with the yoke stripes, the yoke stripes with the sleeve stripes, the sleeve stripes with the sleeve placket
Placket
A placket is an opening in the upper part of trousers or skirts, or at the neck or sleeve of a garment. Plackets are almost always used to allow clothing to be put on or removed easily, but are sometimes used purely as a design element...
stripes,and finally the match the shade of yarn used for the buttonholes is matched to the stripe, the whole process creating the feeling the shirt is all one piece. The yoke is one-piece and curved to follow the back. The left cuff
Cuff
A cuff is an extra layer of fabric at the lower edge of the sleeve of a garment covering the arms. In US usage the word may also refer to the end of the leg of a pair of trousers...
is made one-quarter inch longer than the right to allow for the watch. The allowance is lower for made to order shirts. the cuff is made more or less wide, depending if the customer wants his watch to remain hidden under the cuff or to show. According to a Charvet representative, many customers have two different types of shirts: those for evening wear, intended to be worn with a flat watch, and the others for day wear, with a thicker watch. For men, shirt tails are square and vented
Vent (tailoring)
A vent is a slit in the bottom rear of the jacket. Originally, vents were a sporting option, designed to make riding easier, so are traditional on hacking jackets, formal coats such as a morning coat, and, for reasons of pragmatism, overcoats...
for a clean look. For women, they are rounded, with a signature side-seam gusset
Gusset
In sewing, a gusset is a triangular or rhomboid piece of fabric inserted into a seam to add breadth or reduce stress from tight-fitting clothing...
. The collar is very clean-cut, made from six layers of unfused cloth for a dressy, yet not stiff, appearance. Instead, a free floating stiffener aims to provide more comfort and a better shape. The stitching
Sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...
on a standard collar is four millimeters from the edge. The stitching of the top and the edges are precise and well-planned. There are twenty stitches per inch. Buttons are made from Australian mother-of-pearl, cut from the surface of the oyster shell
Exoskeleton
An exoskeleton is the external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal skeleton of, for example, a human. In popular usage, some of the larger kinds of exoskeletons are known as "shells". Examples of exoskeleton animals include insects such as grasshoppers...
for added strength and greater color clarity. For formal shirts, bibs are hand pleated. Though its traditional ready-to-wear shirts are trim, the company has also introduced in 2009 a "slim fit" line.
A bespoke shirt requires a minimum of 28 measurements and an initial version made in basic cotton. The fit is "full and snug at the same time". The minimum order is one shirt. There are only fifty shirt-makers working in the Saint-Gaultier
Saint-Gaultier
Saint-Gaultier is a commune in the Indre department in central France.-References:*...
atelier and only one person works on a shirt at a time, whether custom or ready-to-wear,doing everything except for the buttonhole
Buttonhole
Buttonholes are holes in fabric which allow buttons to pass through, securing one piece of the fabric to another. The raw edges of a buttonhole are usually finished with stitching. This may be done either by hand or by a sewing machine. Some forms of button, such as a Mandarin button, use a loop...
s and pressing the shirt. Each shirt takes thirty days to complete.
Pyjamas
The jacket is made of 14 pieces and the pants of 5. As for the shirts, patterns are matched throughout; depending on the pattern complexity, the production time is between 7 and 9 hours. Charvet pyjamas are considered a cult objectCult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
.,
Neckwear
Charvet ties, ranked as the best designer's ties in the USA, are hand made, generally from a thick multicolor brocadeBrocade
Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in colored silks and with or without gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli," comes from Italian broccato meaning "embossed cloth," originally past participle of the verb broccare...
silk, of a high yarn count
Units of textile measurement
Textile is measured in various units, such as: the denier and tex , super S , worst count, and yield ....
, often enhanced by the addition of a hidden color, producing a dense fabric which goes through a proprietary finishing
Finishing (textiles)
In textile manufacturing, finishing refers to any process performed on yarn or fabric after weaving or knitting to improve the look, performance, or "hand" of the finished textile or clothing...
to acquire lustre
Lustre (mineralogy)
Lustre is a description of the way light interacts with the surface of a crystal, rock, or mineral. The word lustre traces its origins back to the Latin word lux, meaning "light", and generally implies radiance, gloss, or brilliance....
, fluidity
Fluidity
Fluidity may refer toIn science*reciprocal of viscosity*Cognitive fluidity*Membrane fluidity*Sexual fluidityOthers*Fluidity *Dark Fluidity – a literature magazine*Empire Fane ship...
and resilience
Resilience
Resilience is the property of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed elastically and then, upon unloading to have this energy recovered. In other words, it is the maximum energy per unit volume that can be elastically stored...
and achieve the right knot. The company develops its own exclusive patterns and colors. It creates about 8,000 models per year, Jacquard woven
Jacquard weaving
Jacquard weaving makes possible in almost any loom the programmed raising of each warp thread independently of the others. This brings much greater versatility to the weaving process, and offers the highest level of warp yarn control...
on exclusive commission, with silk either alone or mixed with other precious yarns, such as cashmere
Cashmere wool
Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from Cashmere and other types of goats. The word cashmere derives from an old spelling of Kashmir. Cashmere is fine in texture, and strong, light, and soft. Garments made from it provide excellent...
, camel hair
Camel hair
Camel hair is, variously, the hair of a camel; a type of cloth made from camel hair; or a substitute for authentic camel hair; and is classified as a specialty hair fibre. When woven into haircloth, using the outer protective fur called guard hair, camel hair is coarse and inflexible...
, bamboo yarn
Bamboo textiles
Bamboo textiles are cloth, yarn, and clothing made out of bamboo fibres. While historically used only for structural elements, such as bustles and the ribs of corsets, in recent years a range of technologies have been developed allowing bamboo fibre to be used in a wide range of textile and fashion...
or covered with laminate
Laminate
A laminate is a material that can be constructed by uniting two or more layers of material together. The process of creating a laminate is lamination, which in common parlance refers to the placing of something between layers of plastic and gluing them with heat and/or pressure, usually with an...
d precious metals, such as silver, gold or platinum
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...
,, with techniques
Cloth of gold
Cloth of gold is a fabric woven with a gold-wrapped or spun weft - referred to as "a spirally spun gold strip". In most cases, the core yarn is silk wrapped with a band or strip of high content gold filé...
dating back to the 14th century when the pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
s were based in Avignon
Avignon
Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...
,, which were also used in the 1920s for vests. Further to a long history of brocade patterns, first used in the 19th century for vests and then for ties, Charvet is considered to offer the largest range of woven silk neckties in the world. The ties collection, sometime "unmistakably bold" or "witty [and] wicked", often noted for its shimmer and changing colors (Charvet ties' shimmer "has become so synonymous with the company that we call it the Charvet effect", says a retailer.), uses about 5,000 shades in over 100,000 combinations.,
Ties are made from three pieces of silk material cut at a 45-degree angle. They are sewn entirely by hand before being hand folded into shape. Sevenfold ties are available on order. Until the 1960s, nearly all Charvet ties were sevenfold. The company then decided an interlining
Lining (sewing)
In sewing and tailoring, a lining is an inner layer of fabric, fur, or other material inserted into clothing, hats, luggage, curtains, handbags and similar items....
could bring an improvement, helping protect the shape despite the pulling, and designed a proprietary interlining "which helps the silk keep its resilience and spring, but is not an obstruction when you tie a knot".
The company produced a range of political ties for the 2008 American presidential campaign
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
.,
During the 1950s, it invented a special style of bow tie
Bow tie
The bow tie is a type of men's necktie. It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar in a symmetrical manner such that the two opposite ends form loops. Ready-tied bow ties are available, in which the distinctive bow is sewn into shape and the band around the neck incorporates a clip....
, a cross between a batwing and a butterfly, for the Duke of Windsor
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
, now referred to as the "Charvet cut".
The eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
ous style n° 30 of the book on the 188 styles of tie knots is a three layered bow-tie worn by a woman, the constitutive ribbons being stitched together behind the neck.
Suits
Following the traditional bespokeBespoke
Bespoke is a term employed in a variety of applications to mean an item custom-made to the buyer's specification...
process, measurements are taken, a basted canvas is built around the customer, then disassembled and traced onto paper, after which there are two more fittings. The suit is hand-sewn.
Literary allusions and brand image
References to Charvet in modern British or North American fiction illustrate the brand's identity: they help describe socially a characterPersona
A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον...
by its external appearance, such as elegance, nobility, wealth or occupation. Examples of Charvet's "brand emotion" are literary allusions where the reference to the brand denotes
Denotation
This word has distinct meanings in other fields: see denotation . For the opposite of Denotation see Connotation.*In logic, linguistics and semiotics, the denotation of a word or phrase is a part of its meaning; however, the part referred to varies by context:** In grammar and literary theory, the...
a character's taste or some of his psychological traits such as cheerfulness, detachment, eccentricity, decadence or mischief.
Notable Clients
For various reasons, some customers, such as Charles HaugheyCharles Haughey
Charles James "Charlie" Haughey was Taoiseach of Ireland, serving three terms in office . He was also the fourth leader of Fianna Fáil...
or Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French public intellectual, philosopher and journalist. Often referred to today, in France, simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the "Nouveaux Philosophes" movement in 1976.-Early life:...
, "became synonymous with Charvet".
See also
- Charvet (fabric)Charvet (fabric)A Charvet fabric is woven of silk or acetate in warp-faced rib weave, of a reversed reps type with a double ridge effect. The fabric's name derives from its frequent and "clever" use in the 19th century by the Parisian shirtmaker Charvet. It is characterized by a soft handle and shiny appearance...
- List of Charvet customers
- Evander Berry WallEvander Berry WallEvander Berry Wall , was a New York dude who became famous in the 1880s for his extravagantly refined look.-A Young Prince Prodigal:He was the son of Charles Wall and Elizabeth A. Wall, and the brother of James R...
- Raoul DufyRaoul DufyRaoul Dufy[p] was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events...