Why are Charvet shirts so expensive?+
Because almost nothing about them is mass-produced. Charvet creates exclusive fabrics for all its collections, woven from specially chosen Gossypium barbadense cotton from the Nile delta, with around a thousand new patterns introduced each year, all registered. A bespoke shirt requires a minimum of 28 measurements and an initial trial version in basic cotton, with only one person working on a shirt at a time, and each shirt takes thirty days to complete. You are paying for genuine handwork and exclusivity.
Is a Charvet bespoke shirt worth it?+
If you value fit and fabric above all, the case is strong. The bespoke process is described as an expression of French perfectionism: a minimum of 28 measurements, a trial shirt, and a fit that is full and snug at the same time. With only about fifty shirt-makers in the Saint-Gaultier atelier and one person completing each shirt over thirty days, you are buying a level of individual attention that off-the-rack shirts simply cannot match.
Which Charvet piece is the brand most famous for?+
Two things define Charvet: shirts and ties. It created the very first shirtmaker store in Paris, coining the term chemisier, and men's shirts have remained the house specialty ever since. Its ties are equally legendary, so much so that the name Charvet became a generic term for a certain type of silk fabric used for ties. Either is the quintessential Charvet purchase.
What makes a Charvet tie special?+
Charvet ties are handmade, generally from a thick multicolor brocade silk of high yarn count, often enhanced by a hidden color, and the company creates about 8,000 models a year, Jacquard woven on exclusive commission. They are cut from three pieces of silk at a 45-degree angle and sewn entirely by hand. Their shimmer is so distinctive that, as one retailer put it, people call it 'the Charvet effect.'
When and where was Charvet founded?+
Charvet was founded in 1838 (possibly 1836) in Paris by Joseph-Christophe Charvet, known as Christofle Charvet. He created the first shirtmaker store in the city, a new kind of shop where clients were measured, fabric was selected and shirts were made on site, rather than sewn by linen keepers from customer-supplied cloth. It has supplied bespoke shirts and haberdashery to kings, princes and heads of state ever since.
Why is the brand called Charvet Place Vendôme?+
Because its Paris address is part of its identity. Charvet is located at 28 Place Vendôme and is the oldest shop on the Place, which is why the location is folded into the firm's full name. Its logo even draws on the square: a sun device designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart to ornament the balcony handrails of the Place, built in honor of Louis XIV, the Sun King.
Who owns Charvet today?+
Charvet has stayed a family business. After the Charvet heirs sought to sell in 1965, Denis Colban, the firm's main supplier, bought the company himself and transformed its color and ready-to-wear offering while insisting bespoke remained its core identity. Since his death in 1994, the house has been managed by his two children, Anne-Marie and Jean-Claude Colban.
Where can I buy a Charvet shirt or tie?+
The heart of the brand is a single store. Charvet operates only one shop directly, its seven-floor home at 28 Place Vendôme in Paris, where bespoke shirtmaking lives on the third floor and custom tailoring on the sixth. Its products also reach customers internationally through luxury retailers, but the full bespoke experience, including the legendary fabric walls, is a Paris pilgrimage.
What is the Charvet 'Wall of Whites'?+
It is one of the most famous sights in shirting. On the bespoke floor, Charvet keeps a 'legendary' Mur des Blancs (Wall of Whites) of four hundred different white fabrics in 104 shades of white, alongside another wall of two hundred solid blues. With over 6,000 different shirtings in total, it may be the largest selection of fine shirting fabric in the world.
Which famous people have worn Charvet?+
An extraordinary list across centuries. Edward VII became a loyal Charvet customer for forty years, and the house dressed kings and sultans including Alfonso XIII of Spain and Abdul Hamid II. Modern clients have included French presidents François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, American presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, and figures like Catherine Deneuve and Yves Saint Laurent. Writers from Baudelaire to Proust were devotees too.
What makes Charvet the last of its kind in Paris?+
It is genuinely a survivor. Of the five most prominent French shirtmakers of the 20th century, Bouvin, Charvet, Poirier, Seelio and Seymous, all but Charvet have closed, and it is the only remaining shirtmaker on Place Vendôme. That continuity, stretching back to 1838, is a large part of what gives a Charvet shirt or tie its weight.
