PARIS — When Matthieu Blazy unveiled his first assortment for Chanel, a number of of the most memorable appears to be like got here not from its personal atelier however from that of its Place Vendôme neighbour, Charvet, which has been making immaculate shirting for almost two centuries. The collaboration marked an sudden look of the storied shirtmaker on the runway — a broad highlight on a home higher recognized for discretion than show.
Inside Charvet’s quiet salon, stacked with 1000’s of ties and silk squares stacked on Louis XV-style tables — saleswomen nonetheless see shoppers off with a tender “Merci, Monsieur,” in a timeless scene that embodies the art-of-living Charvet has perpetually refined since its founding in 1838.
It was the first shirtmaker to open a retailer at a time when this operate was reserved for linen employees visiting shoppers at house. Charvet stays the oldest institution on Place Vendôme, the sole and distinctive boutique of this household enterprise unfold over six flooring.
In 1855, Charvet offered shirts at the Universal Exhibition. Nearly two centuries later, its work on Blazy’s debut confirmed its affect, which stays as discreet as it’s legendary — the world’s largest couture home colliding with the purveyor of a single retailer.
Associated with shoppers starting from Charles Baudelaire and Marcel Proust (who evoked in “In Search of Lost Time” “the knot of a magnificent Charvet tie”) to Jean Cocteau, Romain Gary, Charles de Gaulle and François Mitterrand, it has continued to innovate, each technically and commercially, with a number of thousand new merchandise offered every season, together with design, materials and colors. It exported shirts to the United States from 1853 and referred to as upon artists comparable to André Derain and Vlaminck for window shows, and Raoul Dufy for material designs.
Exactly sixty years in the past, one in every of its suppliers, Denis Colban, took over the enterprise. It has been managed since his dying in 1994 by his two youngsters, Anne-Marie and Jean-Claude Colban, devoted to the custom that they renew by means of the profusion of proposals (greater than 6,000 totally different materials, 500 shades of white…), a sure sense of exclusivity and a craft they rejoice as an artwork of residing, in a legendary venue with the feeling of a membership.
In an more and more globalised world, how does Charvet stay sturdy?
We had been lucky to develop at a specific time, supported by a clientele characterised by wealth, expertise and style. Charvet used to have the similar shoppers as Goyard or Cartier, like the Maharajah of Patiala, who was each very luxurious and fashionable in his tastes.
But our shoppers have all the time shaped a cultural elite, transcending the boundaries of cash and energy.
In his correspondence with the American painter Whistler, Robert de Montesquiou spoke of the “novelties” of the Charvet home. For us, novelty will not be vogue. It is the truth of making ready particular developments for shoppers, distinctive merchandise for distinctive shoppers who proceed to encourage us, like this Turkish archivist who got here to deliver us letters between the final Ottoman sultan, Abdülhamid [II]and Charvet.
Our standpoint will not be that of a stylist or inventive director, however that of a home dedicated to shocking whereas sustaining belief. We don’t have any catalog. We are philatelists, collectors. We purchase, we renew, we reply to requests that come from in all places. We are fortunate to have proficient and demanding shoppers. Some purchase ties they don’t put on, others order blue shirts, the similar ones, by the dozen, nonetheless others like to come back and provide one to somebody or a buddy to introduce them. The clientele has grow to be considerably youthful over the previous ten years. Whether it’s a Japanese consumer who encourages us to take a look at what reveals itself from a cuff down, or an American consumer who questions the suppleness of a collar, the fullness of a shirt, the really feel of a zephyr or a batiste, we should stay artistic. Every element is vital, whether or not you might be left-handed or right-handed, whether or not you unbutton your shirt or not, whether or not you handle to create a twill that is extraordinarily effective however not clear.
Your newest innovation?
We simply obtained our fingers on a number of bales of magnificent Indian cotton: A textile engineer managed to hybridise Egyptian cotton with Sea Island cotton from the West Indies. After discussions with a weaver, we spun it and produced a few hundred meters. It has a good looking forged, and the fibre is lengthy. We name it white gold.
Tell us about the three shirts made with Chanel.
They’re cotton, in poplin weaves, piqué or Panama. We began with materials that we developed. There had been almost twenty-four proposals in complete to reach at a color. The approach we combine three shades of threads, relying on how they intertwine, determines a specific relationship with the mild.
What was the place to begin?
Matthieu Blazy knew the home; he referred to as us; it started as a gathering. The complete concept behind this collaboration was born, and stays, that of a dialog fuelled by shared sensibilities. Gabrielle Chanel herself wore males’s shirts and pyjamas, like these of her lover, Boy Capel. In 1929, Gabrielle Chanel, who had designed the costumes for “Apollon Musagète,” selected to belt the muses’ tunics with Charvet ties. It is this primary masculine-feminine gesture that Matthieu Blazy reinterpreted, by calling on the home.
How does this partnership redefine the codes of “collaboration”?
It’s actually an change, in the humanist sense of the time period. Everything occurred with phrases, not temper boards. We seemed, touched supplies collectively and labored with readability, enthusiasm, kindness and complicity from begin to end. Matthieu Blazy’s work is extraordinarily delicate; he doesn’t search to duplicate, however to grasp the essence of a model, and that actually touched us. He first delved into the archives, and we felt every thing infused inside him. He instantly considered a narrative, constructed the place there was no actual data, and it’s on this void that he traces a path.
What’s stunning is that our personal shoppers have responded, feeling honoured and flattered. This collaboration doesn’t betray them; on the opposite, it highlights the experience and shared historical past between two homes. If Matthieu Blazy hadn’t walked in the door, we wouldn’t have reconnected. This reflection on the historical past of artwork and vogue permits us to share one thing uncommon: a excessive normal that is achieved by means of artisanal refinement and noteworthy innovation. Education, actually.
Which different homes can be doable to have such a dialog with?
We’ve already labored with homes like Christian Louboutin, who was significantly acquainted with Charvet silks. We obtain many proposals. The solely collaborations that work are linked to a selected strategy. There are two keys: the truth that the individual or the vogue home has expertise, or that one thing makes historic sense. Not to breed, however to shed new mild.
Charvet has absolutely endured financial crises in its 200-year historical past.
The firm employs 100 individuals, together with 30 in Paris and 70 in the workshops positioned in the Indre area. The most troublesome interval was undoubtedly Covid, when prospects referred to as, and we took orders remotely.
The best problem as we speak is sourcing from suppliers who’ve disappeared or whose high quality has declined. It’s a relentless wrestle. At the similar time, the shortage of provide reinforces Charvet as the benchmark firm every single day.
How do you attain youthful generations?
The buyer base is frequently renewed, with orders coming in from shoppers in the tech sector, for instance. It takes an hour and a half to take measurements and to decide on the materials, and round six weeks for the supply of a primary made-to-order shirt. They are very delicate to the concept of rediscovering by means of this expertise a way of time, an artwork of gesture, of know-how, of a human and artisanal relationship which has completely disappeared from their universe — and which reassures them.