Charvet Place Vendôme#Neckwear
{{Short description|French shirtmaker and bespoke tailor}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2012}}
{{Infobox company
|name=Charvet Place Vendôme
|logo=File:Charvet logo.png
|foundation={{Start date and age|1838}}
|founder=Christofle Charvet
|location=28 Place Vendôme
|location_city=Paris
|location_country=France
|key_people={{plainlist|
- Anne-Marie Colban (director)
- Jean-Claude Colban (director)
}}
|industry=Fashion
|products=Shirts, neckties and suits
|services=Bespoke and ready-to-wear
|homepage=[http://www.charvet.com www.charvet.com]
}}
{{coord|48|52|5.42|N|2|19|48.98|E|display=title|name=Charvet}}
Charvet Place Vendôme ({{IPA|fr|ʃaʁvɛ plas vɑ̃dɔm}}), commonly known as Charvet, is a French high-end shirt maker and tailor located at 28 Place Vendôme in Paris, France. The company designs, produces and sells bespoke and ready-to-wear shirts, neckties, blouses, pyjamas and suits in its Parisian store, as well as 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 haberdashery 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.
History
=Foundation=
File:Madame Charvet.jpg museum.]]
The store was founded in 1838 (or possibly 1836){{#tag:ref
|The founding year of Charvet is not a matter of consensus. For a majority of sources, it is 1838. Nevertheless, some other qualified sources{{cite book
|title=La ville lumière. Anecdotes et Documents historiques, ethnographiques, littéraires, artistiques, commerciaux et encyclopédiques
|location=Paris, 25, rue Louis-le-Grand
|language=fr
|page=99
|year=1909
|oclc=8579760
|url=https://archive.org/stream/lavillelumirea00pariuoft/lavillelumirea00pariuoft_djvu.txt
|access-date=May 24, 2010
|quote=La maison Charvet a été fondée en 1836 par M. Christofle Charvet, auquel a succédé en 1868 son fils M. Édouard Charvet, qui est encore aujourd'hui le chef de la maison avec ses trois fils comme collaborateurs.}}{{cite web|url=http://quid.fr/2007/Principaux_Secteurs_Economiques/Quelques_Dates/2 |title=Principaux Secteurs Économiques: Couture et mode: Quelques dates |work=Quid |language=fr |quote=1836: Christophe Charvet fonde une maison de chemises sur mesure. |access-date=June 8, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090309201500/http://quid.fr/2007/Principaux_Secteurs_Economiques/Quelques_Dates/2 |archive-date=March 9, 2009 }}{{cite news
|title=Charvet, une chemise qui se hausse du col.
|work=Madame Figaro
|language=fr
|first=Jérôme
|last=Hanover
|date=August 5, 2007
|url=http://madame.lefigaro.fr/feminin/une-decoupe-a-la-scie-091210-9398
|access-date=January 4, 2013
|quote=En 1836, comme tous les artisans, Christophe Charvet se déplace chez le client pour proposer ses échantillons de tissus. Mais au bout de deux ans, à l'époque où le dandysme fait rage, il réalise que si ce même client vient à lui, il peut lui offrir un choix bien plus grand. La première boutique de chemise naît en 1838, rue de Richelieu.}} refer to 1836.
|name=foundation
|group=n.
}} by Joseph-Christophe Charvet,{{cite book
|title=Annuaire des notables commerçants de la Ville de Paris
|publisher=Techener
|location=Paris
|year=1867
|page=37
|language=fr
|oclc=472061877
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5818546d
|access-date=May 28, 2010}} known as Christofle Charvet (1809–1870).{{cite book
|title=Paris Deluxe: Place Vendôme
|last=Gregory
|first=Alexis
|publisher=Rizzoli
|location=New York
|year=1997
|page=76
|isbn=978-0-8478-2061-0}}
His father Jean-Pierre, a native of Strasbourg,{{cite book
|last1=Wairy
|first1=Louis Constant
|last2=Dernelle
|first2=Maurice
|title=Mémoires intimes de Napoléon Ier par Constant son valet de chambre
|volume=1
|publisher=Mercure de France
|location=Paris
|year=2000
|language=fr
|isbn=978-2-7152-2213-7
|pages=521, 559, 20, 28}} had been "curator of the wardrobe" for Napoleon Bonaparte,{{cite book
|title=Mémoires de Marchand, premier valet de chambre et exécuteur testamentaire de l'empereur
|last=Marchand
|first=Louis-Joseph-Narcisse
|publisher=Plon
|language=fr
|location=Paris
|volume=1
|year=1955
|page=233
|quote=L'emploi de "conservateur de la Garde-robe" avait été créé au début de l'Empire et d'après Frédéric Masson, confié à Charvet.}}{{cite book
|title=Recueil des traités et accords de la France
|volume=2
|publisher=Imprimerie nationale
|location=Paris
|year=1864
|page=408
|language=fr
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SIYrAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA408
|access-date=July 30, 2010}} 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.{{cite book
|last1=Zieseniss
|first1=Charles Otto
|last2=Le Bourhis
|first2=Katell
|title=The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789–1815
|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art
|location=New York
|year=1989
|isbn= 978-0-87099-570-5
|page=203}} 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),{{cite book
|title=Châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois Préau; Musées napoléoniens de l'Ile d'Aix et de la Maison Bonaparte à Ajaccio: catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures et dessins
|last1=Hubert
|first1=Nicole
|last2=Pougetoux
|first2=Alain
|publisher=Ministère de la culture, de la communication, du bicentenaire et des grands travaux, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux
|year=1989
|language=fr
|page=52
|isbn=978-2-7118-2175-4}} 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.{{cite web
|title=Madame Constant, née Louise-Caroline-Catherine Charvet (1791–1861), femme du valet de chambre de Napoléon Ier
|url=http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/joconde_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_98=APTN&VALUE_98=Charvet%20Edouard
|publisher=Réunion des musées nationaux
|language=fr
|access-date=June 20, 2010}} Constant and his wife Louise did not 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 trousers and lady coats.{{cite book
|title=Exposition des produits de l'industrie française en 1839. Rapport du jury central
|publisher=Librairie Bouchard-Huzard
|location=Paris
|year=1839
|volume=1
|page=72
|language=fr
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=urTo0f88YLUC&pg=PA72
|access-date=June 20, 2010}}
File:Follet nov 1839.jpg (Le Follet, 1839) showing Charvet shirts, one with a frilled front (left), another with a turned down collar (center).]]
Christofle Charvet created the first shirtmaker store in Paris, for which the new term chemisier (shirtmaker) was coined.{{cite news
|last= Murphy
|first=Robert
|title=Shirt Tales
|date=Spring–Summer 2010
|work=Man around Town}}{{#tag:ref
|The word chemisier is considered in 1845 as a neologism.{{cite book
|last=de Radonvilliers Richard
|first=Jean Baptiste
|title=Enrichissement de la langue francaise:Dictionnaire de mots nouveaux
|publisher=Léautey
|location=Paris
|year=1845
|language=fr
|page=61
|quote=Chemisier, s. m., f. ère; marchand, fabricant de chemises.}}
|group=n.}} Previously, shirts were generally made by linen keepers with fabric provided by the customer,{{cite book
|last=Gavenas
|first=Mary Lisa
|year=2008
|title=Encyclopedia of Menswear
|page=86
|publisher=Fairchild Publications
|location=New York
|isbn=978-1-56367-465-5}} but in this store of a new kind, clients were measured, fabric selected and shirts made on site.{{cite book
|last1=Vergani
|first1=Guido
|last2=Belli
|first2=Franco
|last3=Brigidani
|first3=Cristina
|year=1999
|title=Dizionario della moda
|page=152
|publisher=Baldini & Castoldi
|location=Milano
|isbn= 88-8089-585-0
|language=it
|quote=Christophe Charvet, nel 1838, apre in rue de Richelieu un negozio dove prende le misure, propone le stoffe. Nel retro, si tagliano e si cuciono le camicie. È il primo negozio del genere.}} The development of this specialty{{cite book
|last=Académie française
|author-link=Académie française
|title=Complément du Dictionnaire de l'Académie française
|url=https://archive.org/details/fre_b1886109
|year=1842
|location=Paris
|language=fr
|page=xii}} trade was favored by a change in men's fashion, with more importance given to the waistcoat and the shirt collar,{{cite book
|last=Ruppert
|first=Jacques
|title=Le costume français
|publisher=Flammarion
|location=Paris
|language=fr
|pages=257–258
|year=1996
|isbn=2-08-120789-3}} 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,{{cite book
|last1=Shep
|first1=R.L.
|last2=Cariou
|first2=Gail
|title=Shirts & Men's Haberdashery 1840s to 1920s
|publisher=R.L. Shep
|location=Mendocino
|year=1999
|isbn=0-914046-27-6
|pages=4–5}} by application to the shirt of tailoring techniques. The new kind of shirt was called chemise à pièce (yoked shirt).{{cite book
|last=Longueville
|title=Les mystères de la chemise
|year=1844
|publisher=Aubert
|location=Paris
|oclc=466317944}} 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,{{cite news
|title=The Shirt Maker
|last=Flusser
|first=Alan
|author-link=Alan Flusser
|date=October 1982
|work=TWA Ambassador}} and the concept of the detachable collar.{{cite book|last1=Fairchild Melhado
|first1=Jill
|last2=Gallagher
|first2=Gerri
|title=Where to Wear: Paris
|year=2002
|publisher=Where to Wear II/Global
|isbn=978-0-9715446-4-2
|page=[https://archive.org/details/wheretowearparis00jill/page/34 34]
|quote=Charvet pioneered the concept of the detachable collar and the Charvet collar still has a reputation of being attractive with any number of jacket styles.
|url=https://archive.org/details/wheretowearparis00jill/page/34
}}
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| width = 170
| image1 = Charvet advertisement 1839.jpg
| caption1 = Advertisement (March 1839).
| image2 = Charvet advertisement 1839 (2).jpg
| caption2 = Advertisement (May 1839).}}
File:Charvet invoice Destrehan 1860.jpg from Louisiana.]]
In 1839, Charvet already had some imitators,{{#tag:ref
|A British newspaper noted in 1840 that "a Shirt-making monomania has lately sprung up in Paris, and whoever will walk down the Rue Richelieu, and the Rue Neuve Vivienne, will see in gigantic letters, 'Les Chemisiers de Paris,' solely 'consecrated' to that very useful article".{{cite book
|last=Byerly
|first=Thomas
|author2=John Timbs
|title=The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction
|volume=35
|page=62
|year=1840}}
|group=n.}} but still the "best supply".{{cite book
|title=The Court Magazine & Monthly Critic and Lady's Magazine, & Museum of the Belles Lettres, Music, Fine Arts, Drama, Fashions, &c
|volume=3
|publisher=Dobbs & Co
|location=London
|year=1839
|language=fr
|page=682
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=krIRAAAAYAAJ&q=charvet
|access-date=August 18, 2010
|quote=La maison ... la mieux fournie en ce genre si important, aujourd'hui que les chemises sont l'objet d'une si excessive recherche ... Tout ce qui sort de ses magasins est frappé au coin de l'élégance et de la richesse, et la préférence méritée que lui accorde la classe fashionable est un juste hommage rendu au talent et au bon goût.}}
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.{{cite news
|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-159406253.html
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104214856/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-159406253.html
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=November 4, 2012
|title=On the Right Bank; at the Storied House of Charvet, Luxury comes in Superabundance.
|last=Gavenas
|first=Marilise
|date=February 12, 2007
|work=DNR
|access-date=October 21, 2008}} 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.{{cite book
|last=Martin-Fugier
|first=Anne
|year=1990
|title=La vie élégante, ou, La formation du Tout-Paris, 1815–1848
|page=335
|publisher=Fayard
|location=Paris
|isbn=2-213-02501-0
|language=fr}} In an advertisement of March 1839, Charvet, presenting himself as the Club's shirtmaker, claimed to offer "elegance, perfection, moderate prices".{{cite news
|title=Annonce
|work=La Presse
|date=March 10, 1839
|language=fr
|page=4
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k427679w
|access-date=May 26, 2010}} Soon after, the claim to moderate prices was dropped (see images, right).{{cite news
|title=Annonce
|work=La Presse
|date=May 6, 1839
|page=4
|language=fr
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k4277359
|access-date=May 26, 2010}}
Joseph-Édouard Charvet, known as Édouard Charvet, (1842–1928){{cite news
|title=Deuil
|work=Le Figaro
|page=2
|date=January 22, 1928
|language=fr
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k295388n
|access-date=June 7, 2010}} succeeded his father Christofle in 1868. He in turn was joined in the early 20th century by his three sons, Étienne, Raymond and Paul.{{cite news
|title=Souscription pour un fonds de secours immédiat aux veuves, aux enfants et aux mères des aviateurs militaires
|date=March 25, 1912
|work=Le Figaro
|language=fr
|page=1
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2895324
|access-date=May 28, 2010}}
=Location=
The store was initially located on the rue de Richelieu, at n° 103{{cite book
|title=Almanach-Bottin du commerce de Paris, des départemens de la France et des principales villes du monde
|last=Bottin
|first=Sébastien
|publisher=Bureau de l'Almanach du commerce
|location=Paris
|language=fr
|year=1839
|page=208
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k115315z/f599.image.
|access-date=May 3, 2011
|quote=Charvet, brev. chemisier du Jockey-Club, maison spéciale pour chemises et mouchoirs de batiste, r. Richelieu, 103.}} and later at n° 93.{{cite book
|last=Rondot
|first=Natalis
|title=Catalogue officiel: Exposition des produits de l'industrie de toutes les nations, 1855
|url=https://archive.org/details/catalogueofficie00expo_2
|publisher=E. Panis
|location=Paris
|year=1855
|language=fr
|quote=2193 Charvet (C.) à Paris, rue Richelieu, 93 – Chemises, caleçons, gilets de flanelle.}}
It moved to n° 25, place Vendôme in 1877.{{cite news
|title=Petite Gazette
|work=Le Figaro
|date=October 29, 1876
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2761383
|access-date=April 6, 2011
|language=fr}}{{cite book
|last=Sarmant
|first=Thierry
|author2=Luce Gaume
|year=2003
|title=La Place Vendôme: art, pouvoir et fortune
|page=250
|publisher=Action artistique de la ville de Paris
|location=Paris
|isbn=978-2-913246-41-6
|language=fr}} This move reflected a shift in the center of the Parisian high society{{cite book
|last=Perrot
|first=Philippe
|year=1996
|title=Fashioning the Bourgeoisie: A History of Clothing in the Nineteenth Century
|page=41
|publisher=Princeton University Press
|location=Princeton
|isbn=0-691-00081-6}} and the growing importance for fashion of both rue de la Paix, where the house of Worth had opened in 1858, and the palais Garnier against the Théâtre Italien, closer to Charvet's original location. Though Charvet began to offer women's blouses 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."{{cite news
|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/404643791.html?FMT=ABS&dids=404643791:404643791&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+29%2C+1909&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=Paris+Fashions+Show+Luxury+in+New+Shirts+for+Men.
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020183919/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/404643791.html?FMT=ABS&dids=404643791:404643791&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+29,+1909&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=Paris+Fashions+Show+Luxury+in+New+Shirts+for+Men.
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=October 20, 2012
|title=Paris Fashions shows Luxury in New Shirts for Men
|work=Chicago Tribune
|date=September 29, 1909
|access-date=May 22, 2009}} The store was noted for its displays, compared in 1906 to Loie Fuller performances,{{cite news|last=Sem|author-link=Georges Goursat|title=Les modes masculines|work=Je sais tout|date=October 20, 1906|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k102979b/f618|access-date=September 14, 2011|language=fr}} 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".{{cite news
|title=Shopping in Paris
|date=September 20, 1905
|work=The Sydney Morning Herald
|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14719838
|access-date=June 25, 2010}}
File:Paris détail d'un balcon de la place Vendôme 1718.jpg for the balconies of the place Vendôme.]]
In 1921,{{cite news
|title=Entre nous
|work=Le Figaro
|date=August 31, 1921
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2929578
|access-date=April 6, 2011
|language=fr}}{{cite book
|last=Vogely
|first=Maxine Arnold
|year=1981
|title=A Proust Dictionary
|page=144
|publisher=Whitston Pub. Co
|location=Albany
|isbn=0-87875-205-6}} the store moved to n° 8, place Vendôme.
In 1982, it moved to its current location, at n° 28.{{cite news
|url=http://www.robbreport.com/archived-issues/Article.aspx?article=12755
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130104141816/http://www.robbreport.com/archived-issues/Article.aspx?article=12755
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=2013-01-04
|title=Style: Paris Match
|last=Kissel
|first=William
|date=December 2004
|work=Robb Report
|access-date=October 13, 2008
}}
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{{cite news
|title=Date de la déclaration de renouvellement : 30 novembre 2006
|language=fr
|work=Bullein officiel de la propriété industrielle
|date=November 23, 2007
|url=http://www.inpi.fr/fileadmin/mediatheque/BOPI/marques/2007/2007-47v2.pdf
|access-date=January 5, 2013
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924035130/http://www.inpi.fr/fileadmin/mediatheque/BOPI/marques/2007/2007-47v2.pdf
|archive-date=September 24, 2015
|title=Charvet by Charvet Place Vendôme SA
|work=Trademarkia
|url=http://www.trademarkia.com/charvet-73733527.html
|access-date=January 3, 2013}} of the sun device, designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart to ornate the handrails of the balconies of the Place, which was built in honor of Louis XIV, the Sun King.{{cite book
|language=fr
|chapter=La seconde place : l'architecture
|last=Gady
|first=Alexandre
|title=La place Vendôme. Art, pouvoir, et fortune
|publisher=Action artististique de la ville de Paris
|location=Paris
|year=2002
|isbn=2-913246-41-9
|editor-first=Thierry
|editor-last=Sarmant
|pages=84–85
|quote=Très luxueuse, cette grille dont le modèle a été scrupuleusement suivi est peinte en bleu et or, les couleurs royales, et son dessin s'organise autour d'un soleil louisquatorzien.}}
=International recognition=
In 1855 Charvet exhibited shirts and drawers at the Paris World's fair. The jury noted that Parisian shirt makers had an "unquestionable supremacy".{{cite book
|title=Exposition universelle de 1855 : Rapports du jury mixte international
|volume=2
|publisher=Imprimerie nationale
|year=1856
|location=Paris
|pages=500
|language=fr
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sVZAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA500
|access-date=May 29, 2010}}{{#tag:ref
|All the other shirtmakers who established the then "unquestionable supremacy" of the Parisian shirt, Longueville, Durousseau, Darnet and Moreau Frères{{cite book
|last=Tresca
|first=Henri Édouard
|title=Visite à l'exposition universelle de Paris, en 1855
|year=1855
|publisher=Hachette
|location=Paris
|page=[https://archive.org/details/visitelexpositi01tresgoog/page/n760 741]
|url=https://archive.org/details/visitelexpositi01tresgoog
|access-date=May 29, 2010}} went out of business before the end of the 19th century, leaving only Charvet to keep "the sparkle of its old fame which has never weakened and remains equal to itself".{{cite book
|title=Exposition universelle internationale de 1900 à Paris. Rapports du jury international Group XII, class 86
|page=605
|publisher=Imprimerie nationale
|location=Paris
|language=fr
|year=1902
|access-date=November 25, 2008
|url=http://cnum.cnam.fr/fSYN/8XAE577.2.html}}
|group=n.}} Again, at the next Paris World's fair, Charvet exhibited shirts, drawers, vests and handkerchieves{{cite book
|title=Exposition universelle de 1867, Catalogue général
|publisher=E. Dentu
|location=Paris|year=1867|volume=I
|page=72
|language=fr
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eS4SAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA7
|quote=Charvet (C.) à Paris, rue Richelieu, 93 – Chemises, caleçons, gilets et mouchoirs.}} and the Jury noted luxury shirts were a Parisian "monopoly".{{cite book
|title=Exposition universelle internationale de 1889 à Paris. Rapports du jury international. Groupe IV, class 35
|publisher=Imprimerie nationale
|year=1890
|location=Paris
|pages=329, 356
|language=fr
|url=http://cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/fpage.cgi?8XAE348.7/235/100/908/755/866
|access-date=November 25, 2008}} When the king-to-be Edward VII visited the fair, he ordered Parisian shirts, as many other foreign visitors did,{{cite book
|title=Exposition universelle internationale de 1878 à Paris. Rapports du jury international. Groupe IV, class 37
|publisher=Imprimerie nationale
|year=1880
|location=Paris
|pages=124, 167
|language=fr
|access-date=November 25, 2008
|url=http://cnum.cnam.fr/fSYN/8XAE277-4.7.html}} and remained a loyal customer of Charvet, "honoring him during forty years with a special kindness"{{cite news
|title=Les décorés des expositions
|work=Le Figaro
|date=May 26, 1910
|language=fr
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k288846n.
|access-date=June 27, 2010|quote=L'un de ses plus fidèles clients a été S.M. regrettée le roi Édouard VII qui, pendant quarante ans, l'honora d'une bienveillance particulière}} (See List of Charvet customers). Charvet created{{cite news
|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OW18981103.2.164
|title=Try our "98'Curzons!" A few fashion hints for men|date=November 3, 1898
|work=Otago Witness
|access-date=January 26, 2010
|quote=It was actually the Prince of Wales who introduced this shape. He got them originally about eight years ago from a manufacturer called Charvet, in Paris.}} 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).{{cite book
|title=Fashion in Photographs 1880–1900
|last=Levitt
|first=Sarah
|publisher=Batsford
|location=London
|year=1991
|page=81
|isbn=0-7134-6120-9}}
In 1863, Charvet was considered{{cite book
|title=Bericht der volkswirtschaftlichen Commission der württembergischen Kammer der Abgeordneten über den preu︣isch-französischen Handelsvertrag und die in Zusammenhang damit abgeschlossenen internen Verträge
|year=1863
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=heY_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA575
|access-date=December 9, 2010
|language=de
|page=575
|quote=Die Arbeiterinnen des ersten Fabrikanten, Herrn Charvet, zu Paris, welcher die ausgezeichnetsten Waaren liefert, ... "Unsere Hemden" — sagten sie — "sind den ausländischen überlegen an Geschmack und Eleganz." Allein nicht nur der vordere Einsaß und die Manchetten, welche man sieht, sind eleganter, sondern das französische Hemd paßt – nach der Erklärung der Pariser Fabrikanten – auch viel besser an den Leib ... Herr Charvet treibt einen sehr bedeutenden handel mit blosen vorderren einsässen fûr hemden (devants de chemise); "die Engländer" — sagte er — "kommen häufig nach Frankreich, um "Einkäufe davon zu machen."}} 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.{{cite web
|title=Notice signalétique
|language=fr
|work=Base de données des dossiers des titulaires de l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur
|url= http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/leonore/LH039/PG/FRDAFAN83_OL0498076v010.htm
|access-date=September 12, 2011}} 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 haberdashery". 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).
File:Paul Verlaine 2.jpg, by Otto Wegener, wearing a "very beautiful Charvet scarf"]]
The clientele of Charvet also included artists such as Charles Baudelaire,{{cite book|last=Drake
|first=Alicia
|year=2001
|title=A Shopper's Guide to Paris Fashion
|page=[https://archive.org/details/shoppersguidetop00drak/page/30 30]
|publisher=Interlink Pub. Group
|location=Northampton
|isbn=1-56656-378-X
|url=https://archive.org/details/shoppersguidetop00drak/page/30
}} who gave a metaphysical dimension to dandyism,{{cite book
|last=Baudelaire
|first=Charles
|author-link=Charles Baudelaire
|title=The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays
|publisher=Phaidon Press
|year=1964
|location=London
|quote=It is a kind of cult of the self[,] a kind of religion.
|isbn=978-0-7148-3365-1
|page=26}} George Sand, whose lover Alfred de Musset never succeeded to become a member of the Jockey Club, Édouard Manet,{{cite book|last=Nowell
|first=Iris
|year=2004
|title=Generation Deluxe: Consumerism and Philanthropy of the New Super-rich
|page=[https://archive.org/details/generationdeluxe00nowe/page/137 137]
|publisher=Dundurn Press
|location=Toronto
|isbn=1-55002-503-1
|url=https://archive.org/details/generationdeluxe00nowe/page/137
}} nicknamed the "dandy of painting"{{cite book
|title=Dandy, Flaneur, Maler
|last=Korner
|first=Hans
|publisher=W. Fink
|location=Munich
|year=1996
|language=de
|isbn=3-7705-2931-6}} or Jacques Offenbach, composer of La Vie Parisienne. In 1893, when he tried to enter the {{Lang|fr|Académie française|italic=no}},{{cite book
|last=Bertrand
|first=Antoine
|title=Les curiosités esthétiques de Robert de Montesquiou
|page=518
|year=1996
|publisher=Librairie Droz
|location=Geneva
|language=fr
|quote=Une photographie de 1893 ... représente en effet Verlaine en candidat à l'Académie française, arborant une superbe écharpe avec le négligé qui sied|isbn= 978-2-600-00107-6}} Verlaine had himself photographed wearing a "very beautiful Charvet scarf" (Figure, left).{{cite book
|title=In Search of New Scales: Prince Edmond de Polignac, Octatonic Explorer
|last=Kahan
|first=Sylvia
|publisher=University of Rochester Press
|location=Rochester, NY
|year=2009
|isbn=978-1-58046-305-8
|page=79}} 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.{{cite book
|title=Paul Verlaine
|last=Brunel
|first=Pierre
|publisher=Presses Paris Sorbonne
|location=Paris
|language=fr
|year=2004
|isbn=978-2-84050-365-1
|page=30
|quote=Si aucun document ne fait état des cent mille francs ou de la destination qui leur fut assignée, les lettres de Verlaine attestent en revanche les secours que le gentilhomme lui fit parvenir
}}
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.{{cite book
|title=Exposition internationale de Chicago en 1893.
|volume=26
|publisher=Imprimerie nationale
|location=Paris
|year=1894
|page=102
|language=fr
|url=http://cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/fpage.cgi?8XAE383/192/100/375/0/0
|access-date=August 19, 2010
|quote=Elle fournit la plus belle clientèle française et étrangère. Toujours à l'affût de hautes nouveautés, cette maison va constamment de l'avant, donnant le ton à ses nombreux confrères parisiens. Sa fabrication, conduite de père en fils par les chefs distingués de la maison, est irréprochable en tous points; et son chiffre d'affaires, pour un établissement vendant presque exclusivement au détail, est considérable. Il faut encore souligner ses efforts, couronnés de succès, pour faire produire aux fabriques françaises les matières premières fournies de tout temps par l'Angleterre}}
File:Sem Montesquiou Charvet.jpg of Édouard Charvet showing a waistcoat to Robert de Montesquiou]]
After his 1897 portrait by Giovanni Boldini, Montesquiou's dandyism became famous and made him a frequent subject of caricatures.{{cite book
|last=Munhall
|first=Edgar
|title=Whistler and Montesquiou. The Butterfly and the Bat.
|publisher=Flammarion
|location=Paris
|year=1995
|isbn=978-2-08-013577-3
|pages=142–145}} In 1903, a French satirical magazine illustrated by a caricature from Sem to which Marcel Proust alluded in a letter to Montesquiou,{{cite book
|title=Bulletin de la Société des amis de Marcel Proust et des amis de Combray
|editor=Société des amis de Marcel Proust et des amis de Combray
|location=Combray
|year=1957
|series=7
|volume=11
|page=294
|language=fr}} 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).
In 1905, Charvet, then also established in London, at 45 New Bond Street, and "rumored" to be contemplating an establishment in New York,{{cite book
|title=Men's Wear
|volume=18
|year=1905
|pages=50, 101–102}} was considered the "foremost haberdashery of Paris and London". Its customers included not only royalty, 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;{{cite book
|last=Morand
|first=Paul
|author-link=Paul Morand
|year=1931
|title=1900 A.D.
|publisher=W. F. Payson
|location=New York}} 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"{{cite book
|last=Steegmuller
|first=Francis
|title=Cocteau, a Biography
|url=https://archive.org/details/cocteaubiography00stee
|url-access=registration
|publisher=Little, Brown and Company
|location=Boston, Mass.
|year=1970
|page=[https://archive.org/details/cocteaubiography00stee/page/47 47]}} and wrote that it is "where the rainbow finds ideas",{{cite book
|last=Cocteau
|first=Jean
|author-link=Jean Cocteau
|title=La danse de Sophocle
|url=https://archive.org/details/ladansedesophocl00coct
|publisher=Mercure de France
|year=1912
|page=[https://archive.org/details/ladansedesophocl00coct/page/133 133]
|language=fr
|location=Paris
|quote=Charvet où l'arc-en ciel prend ses idées.}} and his friend Sergei Diaghilev.{{cite book|last=Spencer
|first=Charles
|author2=Philip Dyer
|author3=Martin Battersby
|year=1974
|title=The World of Serge Diaghilev
|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldofsergediag00spen/page/21 21]
|publisher=Regnery Publishing
|location=Washington, DC
|isbn=0-8092-8305-0
|url=https://archive.org/details/worldofsergediag00spen/page/21
}} According to Proust, whose shirts, ties and waistcoats were from Charvet, maybe by imitation of Montesquiou,{{cite book
|last=Fretet
|first=Jean
|title=L'aliénation poétique
|language=fr
|page=222
|year=1946}} the latter was "the sign of a certain world, of a certain elegance".{{cite book|last=Albaret
|first=Céleste
|title=Monsieur Proust
|publisher=New York Review of Books
|location=New York
|year=2003
|page=[https://archive.org/details/monsieurproust00alba_1/page/286 286]
|isbn=1-59017-059-8
|url=https://archive.org/details/monsieurproust00alba_1/page/286
}}{{#tag:ref
|On the other hand, Laurent Tailhade considered that "if we have to deal with oafs, bear my fondness for "bourgeois". Their ties come from Charvet"{{cite book
|last=Picq
|first=Gillles
|title=Laurent Tailhade ou de la provocation considérée comme un art de vivre
|publisher=Maisonneuve & Larose
|year=2001
|isbn= 978-2-7068-1526-3
|page=506
|quote=S'il faut inéluctablement frayer avec des mufles, souffrez que j'aime autant les "bourgeois". Leurs cravates sortent de chez Charvet et leurs façons ne manquent pas de savoir-vivre.
|language=fr}} and Paul Morand summed up the change of values at the start of the 20th century with the following question: "Why flaunt Charvet ties and have dirty feet?"{{cite book
|last=Morand
|first=Paul
|author-link=Paul Morand
|title=1900 [i.e. Mil neuf cent]
|publisher=Les Éditions de France
|year=1931
|page=67
|quote=Pourquoi étaler des cravates de chez Charvet et avoir les pieds sales?
|language=fr}}
|group=n.}} Proust also spent long moments at Charvet in search of a perfect tone for his cravats, such as a "creamy pink".{{cite book
|title=Marcel Proust: sa vie, son œuvre
|last=Pierre-Quint
|first=Léon
|publisher=Éditions du Sagittaire
|location=Paris
|page=52
|year=1925
|language=fr
|quote=Sous le col rabattu, il portait des cravates mal nouées ou de larges plastrons de soie de chez Charvet, d'un rose crémeux, dont il avait longuement cherché le ton.}} His tank tops (marcel in French) also came from Charvet.{{cite book
|title = Le marcel de Proust
|last = Clausel
|first = Jean
|publisher = Portaparole
|location = Roma
|year = 2009
|isbn = 978-88-89421-72-7
|pages = 72–73
|language = fr
|url = http://hautlesmainspeaudelapin.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/proustomanie/
|access-date = April 13, 2010
|quote = Il pointa l'index sur la tranche où était écrit en grandes anglaises: 'M. Proust' ... Il souleva le carton: une pile de trois ou quatre maillots de corps à bretelles, en mailles de soie.
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100426235616/http://hautlesmainspeaudelapin.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/proustomanie/
|archive-date = April 26, 2010
|url-status = dead
|df = mdy-all
}} 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".{{cite book
|last=Proust
|first=Marcel
|author-link=Marcel Proust
|title=A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur
|volume=1
|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2998 |quote=…tout en resserrant de temps à autre le nœud d'une magnifique cravate de chez Charvet…}} In 1908, Charvet won a Grand Prix at the London Exhibition.
[[File:Charvet laundry advertising.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Advertisement (1903) for the Charvet laundry, later reproduced on stamps.{{cite book
|title=Bulletin de la société archéologique, historique et artistique
|volume=2
|year=1905
|publisher=Lefebvre-Ducrocq
|location=Paris
|language=fr
|page=552
|quote=Les timbres Charvet, longs et étroits, figurant un monsieur en habit: « Je me fais blanchir chez Charvet », et une dame en robe de soirée : « Et moi aussi »}}]] 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,{{cite news
|last=McIntyre
|first=O. O.
|title=A New Yorker in Paris
|work=Rochester Evening Journal and Post Express
|date=March 24, 1925
|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QgpGAAAAIBAJ&pg=4240,2307001
|access-date=April 9, 2011
|quote=Not so many years ago France sent its laundry weekly across the channel to London. Very little laundry work was done in Paris. The first laundry was built by Charvet, a fashionable haberdasher}} a fact which later led some others to assume Charvet's laundry business had predated shirtmaking.{{cite news
|title=The Lion's Fight
|work=The Miami News
|date=October 8, 1936
|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5zQuAAAAIBAJ&pg=5386,4215166
|access-date=April 9, 2011
|quote=Swank Englishmen years ago used to send their laundry across the channel to Paris. Out of this laundry business grew the famous haberdashery salon of Charvet in the Place Vendome. The first Charvet was a washer-man}} It was advertised as applying Pasteur's and Grancher's principles.{{cite news |title=Advertisement
|work=Le Figaro
|date=October 26, 1901
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k285671b
|language=fr
|access-date=April 9, 2011}}{{cite news
|title=Blanchisserie modèle de la Maison Charvet
|work=L'Illustration
|date=May 25, 1901
|language=fr}} In 1903, Charvet moved his "model laundry",{{cite news
|title=La presse anglaise et les échos de la récente visite des blanchisseurs anglais à leurs confrères parisiens
|date=September 28, 1906
|work=Le Figaro
|language=fr
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k287490k
|access-date=April 6, 2011
|quote=Daily Telegraph: "Les délégués anglais ont admiré la perfection technique de la Blanchisserie modèle de la maison Charvet". Daily News: "Les délégués ont été très surpris de la quantité de paniers de linge blanchi prêts à être expédiés en Angleterre qu'ils ont vus dans cette maison".}} 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,{{cite news
|title=A travers Paris
|work=Le Figaro
|language=fr
|date=December 24, 1902
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k286096b
|access-date=April 6, 2011}} then licensed to the Parisian hospitals.{{cite journal
|last=Otto
|first=Marius
|title=Les progrès récents réalisés dans l'industrie de l'ozone
|journal=Mémoires et compte rendu des travaux de la Société des ingénieurs civils|year=1903
|volume=81
|publisher=Société des ingénieurs civils de France
|location=Paris
|pages=567–569
|url=http://cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/fpage.cgi?ECCMC6.80/571/100/741/736/741
|access-date=June 25, 2010
|language=fr
|quote=Grâce à l'initiative courageuse d'un grand industriel parisien, M. Charvet, une blanchisserie modèle, à l'ozone, vient d'être installée au Marché Saint-Honoré. Le Conseil municipal de Paris a autorisé cette création dans les locaux appartenant à la Ville ... Une licence des procédés employés par M. Charvet a été concédée aux établissements hospitaliers de la capitale. L'ozone est employé dans la blanchisserie Charvet, pour la désinfection et pour le blanchiment proprement dit.}} The soiled clothes, picked up at the customer's house by "special cars",{{cite news
|title=Petites histoires
|work=Le Figaro
|date=October 19, 1903
|language=fr
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k286397n
|access-date=April 6, 2011}} were disinfected and bleached with ozone, then placed in a revolving drum worked by electricity{{cite book
|title=Diseases of Occupation from the Legislative, Social, and Medical Points of View
|url=https://archive.org/details/diseasesoccupat01olivgoog
|last=Oliver
|first=Thomas
|publisher=Methuen & Co
|year=1908
|page=[https://archive.org/details/diseasesoccupat01olivgoog/page/n318 392]}} and 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.{{cite journal
|last=Wurtz
|first=R.
|author2=Tanon, L.
|title=Note au sujet du décret relatif aux précautions édictées pour la manipulation du linge sale dans le blanchissage du linge
|journal=Revue d'hygiène et de police sanitaire
|location=Paris
|year=1905
|volume=27
|page=573
|url=http://web2.bium.univ-paris5.fr/livanc/?p=571&cote=90113x1905x27&do=page
|access-date=August 17, 2010
|language=fr
|quote=Au sortir du cuvier où il a été coulé, le linge est lavé, puis rincé à l'eau pure ou à l'eau additionnée d'eau de javelle, puis azuré; enfin essoré, séché, empesé, repassé, cylindré.}} The process was considered a model both for the quality of the output{{cite journal
|year=1904
|journal=Scientific American
|volume=57
|issue=1480
|page=23716
|title=A Model Parisian Laundry|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican05141904-23716asupp
}} and for the care taken of the health of the workers.{{cite book
|title=Diseases of Occupation from the Legislative, Social, and Medical Points of View
|last=Oliver
|first=Thomas
|publisher=Methuen & Co
|year=1908
|page=[https://archive.org/details/diseasesoccupat01olivgoog/page/n318 392]
|url=https://archive.org/details/diseasesoccupat01olivgoog
|access-date=April 6, 2011}} A "surprising" amount of laundry was sent over by British customers. Like many other foreign customers,{{cite book
|last=Sitwell
|first=Osbert
|author-link=Osbert Sitwell
|title=Laughter in the Next Room
|publisher=Greenwood Press
|year=1972
|isbn=978-0-8371-6042-9
|page=53
|quote= When they went back to Russia, [the Grand Dukes] would send their linen from St. Petersburg right across Europe, to be washed at Charvet's, the famous shirt maker in Paris.}} William Stewart Halsted{{cite news
|title=Re-Examining the Father of Modern Surgery
|last=Gross
|first=Terry
|date=February 22, 2010
|work=National Public Radio
|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=123570287
|access-date=July 28, 2010
|title=Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted
|last=Imber
|first=Gerald
|publisher=Kaplan Publishing
|year=2010
|isbn=978-1-60714-627-8
|page=250}} and William H. Welch{{cite book
|last=Fleming
|first=Donald
|title=William H. Welch and the Rise of Modern Medicine
|url=https://archive.org/details/williamhwelchris00flem
|url-access=registration
|publisher=Little, Brown and Company
|location=New York
|year=1954
|page=[https://archive.org/details/williamhwelchris00flem/page/88 88]}} regularly sent their shirts to be laundered to Charvet in Paris.{{#tag:ref
|In his account of the imaginary correspondence between Pandit Motilal Nehru and a Parisian laundry in the year 1903, S.J. Perelman mused on the complications of such overseas dispatches and the implied "limitless wardrobe".{{cite magazine
|last=Perelman
|first=S. J.
|author-link=S.J. Perelman
|title=No starch in The Dhoti, S'il Vous Plait
|magazine=The New Yorker
|location=New York
|date=February 12, 1955
|url=http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1955-02-12#folio=028
|access-date=August 17, 2010}}
|group=n.}} Promotional stamps were produced for this laundry business and became collectible. In 1906, a branch of the laundry was opened at 1, rue du Colisée, near the Champs-Élysées.{{cite news
|title=La Blanchisserie modèle de la maison Charvet
|date=May 15, 1906
|work=Le Figaro
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k287350w
|language=fr
|access-date=April 6, 2011
|quote=Sur un simple coup de fil des voitures spéciales viennent prendre à domicile pour le rendre dans la huitaine le linge d'hommes et de dames}} During World War I, Charvet significantly reduced the price of its laundry services to keep sufficient work for all his employees.{{cite news
|title=Renseignements utiles
|work=Le Gaulois
|date=August 11, 1914
|language=fr
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k536246n/f2.image.
|access-date=May 3, 2011}} Towards the end of the war, the shortage of coal severely hit Charvet's laundry activity.{{cite news
|title=Laundry troubles
|date=February 19, 1917
|work=The West Australian
|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27290679|access-date=June 25, 2010}} The "model laundry" of place du marché Saint Honoré was discontinued in 1933 when the place was restructured.{{cite news
|title=Vieux Paris
|work=Le Figaro
|date=August 29, 1933
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k297435n
|access-date=April 9, 2011
|language=fr
|quote=C'est cette blanchisserie qui disparaît présentement.}}
{{Clear}}
Charvet-laundry-1.jpg|Photo (1901). Separate soaping and soaking at the 1st model laundry, rue des Capucines.
Charvet-laundry-2.jpg|Photo (1901). Checking and sorting at the 1st model laundry.
Charvet ozone generators.jpg|Photo (1903). Ozone generators in the 2nd model laundry, place du Marché Saint Honoré
Charvet washing machines.jpg|Mechanical washing machines in the 2nd model laundry.
Charvet shirts were imported into the United States as early as 1853 (See figure right).{{cite news
|title=Perfumeries and Gentlemen's Furnishing Goods
|date=March 29, 1853
|work=The Times-Picayune}} 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.{{cite book
|title=Traité de commerce avec l'Angleterre: enquête
|publisher=Imprimerie Impériale
|location=Paris
|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Ps9DAaFZsa4C
|access-date=April 10, 2011
|language=fr
|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Ps9DAaFZsa4C/page/n447 423]–433
|year=1861}} Also, following the custom of the time, designs and models were sold to American stores, to be locally reproduced.{{cite news
|title=Advertisement
|work=Detroit Free Press
|date=March 27, 1898}}{{cite news
|title=Making stock for charity
|date= September 22, 1897
|work=The Milwaukee Journal
|page=5
|quote=One young woman has sent over to Charvet, the swell shirt-maker of Paris, for some new patterns, and she intends selling hers, when copied.
|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-HMxAAAAIBAJ&pg=2229,7096468
|access-date=June 9, 2010}} In the 1920s, Charvet's name was associated in the United States with linen fabrics in "startingly floreated" patterns, used for shirt bibs and cuffs.{{cite news
|title=For the well dressed man : Clothes for the Evening, for Weddings, and Other Formal Occasions
|newspaper=Vanity Fair
|date=May 1920
|page=87
|hdl=2027/mdp.39015041189476?urlappend=%3Bseq=675
|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015041189476?urlappend=%3Bseq=675
|access-date=October 15, 2012}} Nevertheless, into the middle of the 20th century, Charvet was selling only bespoke shirts in the Paris store.{{#tag:ref
|The beginning of Gilles, Drieu la Rochelle's major work, shows the eponymous hero told in 1917 by Charvet that he is not doing ready-to-wear shirts.{{cite book
|author-link=Pierre Drieu La Rochelle
|last=Drieu la Rochelle
|first=Pierre
|title=Gilles
|title-link=Gilles (novel)
|publisher=Gallimard
|location=Paris
|year=1939
|language=fr
|pages=16–17
|quote="Nous n'avons pas de chemises toutes faites, monsieur", répondit M. Charvet lui-même.}}
|group=n.}}
File:Charvet Mens wear cartoon 1908.jpg
In 1908, Charvet was the first European company to import American suits hand tailored in Chicago.{{cite news
|title=Paris wears Chicago clothes
|date=March 26, 1908|work=Chicago Tribune
|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/407660671.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106142828/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/407660671.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=November 6, 2012
|access-date=April 29, 2011}}{{cite news
|title=Do you blame us for boasting
|work=Mt. Sterling Advocate
|date=June 2, 1909
|url=http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=mtsnews;cc=mtsnews;q1=hirsh;rgn=full%20text;idno=mts1909060201;didno=mts1909060201;view=pdf;seq=6|access-date=April 29, 2011}}
File:Charvet waistcoat 1907.tif
The name Charvet was so well known that it became associated{{cite news
|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/10/03/100108102.pdf
|title=Business World
|date=October 3, 1914
|work=The New York Times
|access-date=October 21, 2008
|quote=The full dress tie made of charvet material is a favorite at the present time and ties of this fabric can be purchased in white, pearl and black for dinner and evening wear.
}} with a certain silk fabric for ties (See Charvet (fabric)). Charvet's notability also extended to other items of clothing, such as shirts,{{#tag:ref
|Charvet's prominent position{{cite news
|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/10/05/100280863.pdf
|title=Second Empire effects are seen
|date=October 5, 1913
|work=The New York Times
|access-date=October 21, 2008
|quote=[Charvet] always has the last word on shirts.
}} called for constant innovation, such as a "one thousand pleats" shirt for tuxedo wear, which actually counted 178 extremely fine tucks on each side.{{cite book
|title=Men's Wear
|volume=24
|page=51
|year=1907
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jylRAAAAYAAJ
|access-date=September 1, 2011}}
|group=n.}} shirtings,{{#tag:ref
|At the start of the 20th century, an American advertisement called Charvet the "master-mind of French modes in shirtings".{{cite news
|title=Advertisement of John David
|author=Beaunash
|work=The New York Times
|date=March 9, 1912}}{{subscription required}} "Charvet of Paris leads the Old World in the charm of the fabrics he has woven. We have his weaver working for us as well", boasted another one.{{cite news
|title=Men's Shirts to Order
|type=advertisement
|date=January 24, 1900
|work=The New York Times}}{{subscription required}}
|group=n.}} ties, gloves,{{cite book
|title=Farmers' Loan and Trust Company
|page=13
|year=1914
|url=http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/ny-city-bank-farmers-trust-company-new-york/paris-yti/1-paris-yti.shtml}} dress suits,{{#tag:ref
|In 1909, for the Chicago Tribune, Charvet and Henry Poole & Co were "authorities" who "not only keep abreast of the times but may be called pioneers in the matters of fashions for men.{{cite news
|title=Again rumors of colored evening coats
|work=Chicago Tribune
|date=September 29, 1909}}
|group=n.}} waistcoats (see image, left),{{#tag:ref
|The French painter Maurice Lobre wrote in 1903 to Robert de Montesquiou that "Charvet wants to do marvels for you ... He is practising on me, making vests which are masterpieces from the back, the front, the top and the bottom."
|group=n.}}{{#tag:ref
|Charvet is credited with the invention of the strait waistcoat with a rolling shawl collar.{{cite journal
|last=Praslières
|first=Maurice
|year=1903
|title=La mode masculine
|journal=Les Modes
|issue=31
|page=23
|language=fr
|quote=C'est Charvet qui a inventé le gilet à châle roulé et bouffant, droit, à un rang de boutons.
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57258721
|access-date=March 7, 2010}} The company introduced pale gray waistcoats for evening wear and the black satin vest.{{cite news
|title=Sombre shades for men
|work=Baltimore Sun
|date=February 25, 1915
|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/baltsun/access/1654367592.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130131164500/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/baltsun/access/1654367592.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=January 31, 2013
|access-date=July 3, 2011}} Its fancy waistcoats were first worn in the United States, towards the end of the 19th century, by Henry Clews and were afterwards also referred to as "Imandt Grand Prix" vests.{{cite book
|last=de Lyon Nicholls
|first=Charles Wilbur
|title=The Ultra-Fashionable Peerage of America
|publisher=Ayer Publishing
|location=Manchester
|year=1975
|isbn=978-0-405-06930-7
|page=37}}
|group=n.}} undergarments,{{#tag:ref
|Henry Clay Frick's silk-and-wool undergarments bore ornate monograms and discreetly revealed the Parisian haberdasher's name in the weave of the fabric.{{cite book
|last=Jones Arbitman
|first=Kahren
|author2=Kahren Hellerstedtand
|title=Clayton, the Pittsburgh Home of Henry Clay Frick: Art and Furnishings
|publisher=Frick Art & Historical Center
|location=Pittsburgh
|year=1989
|isbn=978-0-8229-6905-1
|page=61}}
|group=n.}} pocketchieves,{{cite book
|last=Forman
|first=Justus Miles
|author-link=Justus Miles Forman
|title=Bianca's Daughter
|url=https://archive.org/details/biancasdaughtern00form
|publisher=Harper & Brothers
|location=New York
|year=1910
|page=[https://archive.org/details/biancasdaughtern00form/page/135 135]
|quote=The pale tones of shirt and cravat and out-peeping pochette bespoke the genius of the well-known M. Charvet.}} and women's waistbands{{cite news
|title=Advertisement
|work=The Philadelphia Recorder
|date=October 8, 1902
|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?ad=xelTAAAAIBAJ&pg=2056,4529945
|access-date=April 20, 2011
|quote=The Charvet waist of moire with the new stock has taken women by storm we are copying it by dozens in pale colored moires}} or shirtwaists{{cite news
|last=De Forest
|first=Katharine
|title=Our Paris letter
|newspaper=Harper's Bazaar
|date=September 18, 1897
|quote=The new Charvet shirt-waist ... will become standard so it is worthwhile describing again. The under part of the waist is cut bias, and adjusted to button in front, like a tight waist. The blouse part is put into the collar separately. It is nothing but two loose fronts laid in side pleats, and blousing into the belt independently of the under part
}} (See figures left), worn with special models of ties for ladies, such as one called le juge modeled after a judge's lappets.{{cite news
|last=De Forest
|first=Katharine
|title=Recent happenings in Paris
|newspaper=Harper's Bazaar
|date=July 1, 1902}} 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".{{cite news
|title=Man may go limit in handkerchiefs and ties
|date=September 29, 1909
|work=Chicago Tribune}} Charvet also supplied silk bed-sheets in colours such as black, green, mauve or violet.{{cite news
|title=Let us dress ourselves in silk
|last=de Waleffe
|first=Maurice
|newspaper=La Soierie de Lyon
|date=October 1932
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5693389n/f41
|access-date=January 31, 2012}}
File:Parfum Charvet 1931.jpg and the Royal Warrant of the United Kingdom can be seen in the foreground]]
In the early 20th century, Charvet launched a toilet water, in a rectangular beveled 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.{{cite book
|last=Bollon
|first=Patrice
|title=Esprit d'époque: essai sur l'âme contemporaine et le conformisme naturel de nos sociétés
|url=https://archive.org/details/espritdepoqueess0000boll
|url-access=registration
|page=[https://archive.org/details/espritdepoqueess0000boll/page/57 57]
|language=fr
|isbn=978-2-02-013367-8
|publisher=Le Seuil
|year=2002
|quote=L'adaptation d'un flacon d'eau de toilette pour hommes datant de l'avant-guerre du chemisier Charvet.}}
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.{{cite news
|title=Paris Offers Ecru Shirts
|date=January 17, 1915
|work=Boston Daily Globe}}
{{Clear}}
Little dress Charvet.jpg|Sketch (1898) of a dress with chemisette and cravat
Charvet corsage.jpg|Sketch (1898) of a corsage with matching scarf and waistband
Charvet adv ht 1896 cropped.jpg|Advertisement (1896) for a pleated and ruffled chemisette
Fine batiste waist.jpg|Sketch (1898) of a shirtwaist in batiste
Paris waist from Charvet.jpg|Sketch (1898) of a shirtwaist in linon
=Art Deco period=
{{multiple image
|align=left
|image1=Dufy Les Allies.jpg|width1=170|caption1= Les Alliés, handkerchief (1915).
|image2=Victory rooster.jpg|width2=200|caption2=Victory Rooster, silk square (1918).
|footer=Some designs by Raoul Dufy for Charvet.|footer_align=center}}
After 1912, with the development of the Art Deco style, Charvet, along with fashion designer Paul Poiret, started to commission art work from the French painter Raoul Dufy,{{cite news
|url=http://www.lepoint.fr/mode-design/le-royaume-de-la-couleur-30-12-2011-1413861_265.php
|title=Charvet, le royaume de la couleur
|work=Le Point
|last=de Montmorin
|first=Gabrielle
|language=fr
|date=December 30, 2011
|access-date=April 23, 2012}} the "granddaddy of modem chic",{{cite magazine
|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,853355,00.html
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114084132/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,853355,00.html
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=January 14, 2009
|title=Slick Chic
|magazine=Time
|date=November 8, 1948
|access-date=November 24, 2008}} through the French weaver Bianchini-Férier.{{cite book
|last=Tourlonias
|first=Anne
|year=1998
|title=Raoul Dufy, l'œuvre en soie
|page=41
|publisher=Barthelemy
|location=Avignon
|isbn=2-87923-094-2
|quote=Le 1er mars 1912, Raoul Dufy et Charles Bianchini signent le contrat.
|language=fr}} Some of the first were related to the war, such as Les Alliés or the Victory Rooster (Figure, left).{{cite book
|title=Raoul Dufy: Paintings, Drawings, Illustrated Books, Mural Decorations, Aubusson Tapestries, Fabric Designs and Fabrics for Bianchini-Férier, Paul Poiret Dresses, Ceramics, Posters, Theatre Designs
|page=106
|publisher=Arts Council of Great Britain
|location=London
|year=1983}} This was followed by more silk squares, woven silk fabrics for vests, and printed ramie fabrics for dressing gowns and shirts.{{cite book
|last=Tuchscherer
|first=Jean-Michel
|year=1973
|title=Raoul Dufy, créateur d'étoffes
|page=22
|publisher=Musée de l'impression sur étoffes
|location=Mulhouse
|language=fr
|quote=Ce tissu peu courant était fabriqué par un ami de Monsieur Bianchini et fourni en particulier à Charvet – chemisier place Vendôme – qui en faisait des chemises, robes de chambre, etc.}} Some famous customers of the period were fashion designer Coco Chanel{{#tag:ref
|Chanel designed some costumes for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In 1928, she dressed the Muses in Balanchine's Apollon Musagète with a free adaptation of the antique tunic, whose pleats were bound with the silk of three Charvet ties.{{cite book
|last=Acocella
|first=Joan Ross
|title=The Art of Enchantment: Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 1909–1929
|publisher=Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
|year=1988
|isbn=978-0-87663-761-6
|page=94}}
|group=n.}} and the Maharadjah of Patiala who once placed a single order of 86 dozen shirts.{{cite news
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/style/tmagazine/t_m_1151_talk_patnerrev_.html
|title=What's my line
|last=Patner
|first=Josh
|date=June 4, 2005
|work=The New York Times Magazine
|access-date=October 21, 2008}}
File:Charvet shirt.jpg, Oslo.]]
In the late 1920s, Charvet was considered to produce "the finest cravats in the world",{{cite book
|last=Reynolds
|first=Bruce
|title=Paris with the lid lifted
|page=190
|publisher=G. Scully
|year=1927
}} with either conservative designs or "decidedly original"{{cite book
|title=The New Yorker
|year=1933
|page=72
|publisher=F-R Pub. Corp}} patterns, such as postage-stamps{{cite book|last=Waugh
|first=Evelyn
|author-link=Evelyn Waugh
|year=1945
|title=Brideshead Revisited
|title-link=Brideshead Revisited
|page=[https://archive.org/details/bridesheadrevisi00waug_4/page/31 31]
|publisher=Little, Brown and Company
|location=Boston
|isbn=0-316-92634-5
|last=Taylor
|first=Elizabeth
|author-link=Elizabeth Taylor
|title=A Game of Hide and Seek
|title-link=A Game of Hide and Seek
|year=1951
|publisher=Knopf
|location=New York
|page=117}} (See below) or much more "modernist"{{cite news
|last=Moseley
|first=Seth H.
|title=Colorful Designs Are Featured in Braces, Garters
|work=St. Petersburg Times
|date=June 6, 1937
|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2J1aAAAAIBAJ&pg=6628,589596
|access-date=April 10, 2011
|quote=Charvet patterns, named after the Parisian modernist who originated them, are derived in imitation of such natural objects as leaves and flowers, but look more like lightning hitting twice in the same place}} patterns. At an exhibition called "L'art de la soie" held at the Musée Galliera in Paris in 1927, Charvet presented dressing gowns and neckties in matching patterns,{{cite news
|title=Chronique de l'art décoratif
|year=1927
|language=fr
|newspaper=L'art vivant
|pages=619–620
|quote=Charvet ... expose un patron complet : robes de chambre et cravates de belle qualité et aux heureux dessins, aux riches couleurs}} together with pyjamas,{{cite news
|title=L'art moderne de la soie
|newspaper=La Renaissance de l'art français et des industries de luxe
|date=July 1927
|page=370
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6158581g/f79.image
|access-date=October 10, 2012}} shirts and handherchieves.{{cite news
|title=L'art de la soie au musée Galliera
|newspaper=L'Opinion
|language=fr
|year=1927
|pages=39–40}} 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.{{cite book
|last=Kanin
|first=Garson
|author-link=Garson Kanin
|title=Hollywood: stars and starlets, tycoons and flesh-peddlers, moviemakers and moneymakers, frauds and geniuses, hopefuls and has-beens, great lovers and sex symbols
|publisher=Viking Press
|location=New York
|oclc=17794150
|year=1967
|quote=Charvet will send over, say, a dozen neckties. You may choose one or two or none and return the rest
|page=270}} It conceived a range of free-form{{cite book
|title=75 Years of Fashion
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IpMbAQAAMAAJ
|access-date=September 2, 2011
|year=1965
|page=123
|publisher=Fairchild Publications}} bold printed tie patterns which gained wide popularity in the USA.{{#tag:ref
|This popularity even reached Al Capone,{{cite book|last=Breslin
|first=Jimmy
|author-link=Jimmy Breslin
|year=1991
|title=Damon Runyon: A Life
|page=[https://archive.org/details/damonrunyon00bres/page/347 347]
|publisher=Ticknor and Fields
|location=Boston
|isbn=0-89919-984-4
|url=https://archive.org/details/damonrunyon00bres/page/347
|title=Frank Costello's only Fear is Wife
|work=The Miami News
|date=May 5, 1947
|page=30
|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19470505&id=ZwgtAAAAIBAJ&pg=4370,1784853
|access-date=June 9, 2010}} and Lucky Luciano.{{cite book
|last=Gosch
|first=Martin A
|year=1975
|title=The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano
|page=74
|publisher=Macmillan Publishers
|location=New York
|isbn=0-333-17750-9}}
|group=n.}} "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".{{cite book
|last=Flusser
|first=Alan
|author-link=Alan Flusser
|year=2002
|title=Dressing the Man
|url=https://archive.org/details/dressingmanmaste00flus_642
|url-access=limited
|page=[https://archive.org/details/dressingmanmaste00flus_642/page/n168 156]
|publisher=HarperCollins
|location=New York
|isbn=0-06-019144-9}} 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.{{cite news
|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-30277437_ITM
|title=Other estate happenings|date=April 1, 2007
|work=Sarasota
|access-date=October 8, 2008}} These patterns, for which charvet became a generic name,{{cite news
|title=Stylists Report Linen Shirts Are Favored for Men
|date=April 25, 1937
|work=St. Petersburg Times
|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=y0gLAAAAIBAJ&pg=6728,3665142
|access-date=June 9, 2009}}{{cite news
|title=Ties Will Show Bolder Trend in Colors, Lines
|date=September 23, 1936
|newspaper=The Washington Post
|quote=The new trend in necktie fabrics shows a strong leaning towards bolder color combinations and designs, many of them inspired by the French school of modern design. Some houses report the importance of large charvet and school patterns, breaking away from the small neat patterns of past seasons.}} "foreshadowed"{{cite book
|last=Gibbings
|first=Sarah
|title=The Tie: Trends and Traditions
|publisher=Barron's
|location=New York
|year=1990
|page=100
|isbn=0-8120-6199-3}} the colorful designs which became popular after the war.{{cite book
|last=Ruttenberg
|first=Edward
|title=The American Male: His Fashions and Foibles
|publisher=Fairchild Publications
|location=New York
|year=1948
|page=329
|quote=The former serviceman ... is rolling around in color and sparking up as he considers the possibilities of Charvet patterns vs. the conservative. The thirst for variety, caused by long abstinence while bearing arms, fins expression in colorful cravats.}} The company also produced beach linen robes with patterns up to two feet in diameter.{{cite book
|last=Schoeffler
|first=O.E.
|author2=William Gale
|title=Esquire's Encyclopedia of 20th Century Men's Fashions
|publisher=McGraw-Hill
|year=1973
|page=422
|isbn=978-0-07-055480-1}}
In the 1930s, some window displays were made by painters as André Derain or Maurice de Vlaminck.{{cite news
|title=Littérature et publicité
|date=April 26, 1932
|work=Le Figaro
|language=fr
|quote=Il est certes bien naturel que Vlaminck ou Derain composent des enseignes pour Charvet ... On ne voit pas de raison qu'un étalage de chemisier ne fasse pas une aussi bonne nature morte que des langoustes ou des citrouilles.
|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2969458
|access-date=June 26, 2010}}
=Colban's takeover=
File:Charles de Gaulle-1963.jpg wearing his traditional{{cite book
|last=Labro
|first=Philippe
|title=Je connais des gens de toutes sortes
|language=fr
|page=96
|publisher=Gallimard
|location=Paris
|quote=Il n'a plus désormais comme uniforme que le costume ample et croisé (sombre), la cravate noire, la chemise blanche}} Charvet white shirt and black tie.]]
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,{{#tag:ref
|All De Gaulle's shirts and ties came from Charvet. It was always his wife who bought them.{{cite book
|last=Tauriac
|first=Michel
|title=Vivre avec de Gaulle: les derniers témoins racontent l'homme
|publisher=Plon
|location=Paris
|year=2008
|page=396
|language=fr
|isbn= 978-2-259-20721-8}}
|group=n.}} 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.{{cite book
|last=Chaille
|first=François
|year=1994
|title=The Book of Ties
|page=119
|publisher=Flammarion
|location=Paris
|isbn=2-08-013568-6}}
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.{{cite book
|last=Flusser
|first=Alan
|author-link=Alan Flusser
|title=Making the Man
|publisher=Wallaby Books
|location=New York
|year=1981
|page=190
|isbn=0-671-79147-8}} A wide range of products was put on display, transforming the store in a "veritable casbah" of colors and "almost edible"{{cite news
|last=Duka
|first=John
|title=Shopping in London and Paris for Traditional Men's Clothes
|newspaper=The New York Times
|date=December 26, 1983}} fabrics. Colban also brought significant changes to the aspect of the store, having all the venerable furniture varnished in black. He created new lines of products and started ready-to-wear finely made shirts for men and women.{{cite news
|last=Sheppard
|first=Eugenia
|title=Shirtmaker Designs Collection for Women
|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XAoVAAAAIBAJ&pg=4992,3581157
|date=July 17, 1978
|work=Toledo Blade
|access-date=June 9, 2009}} 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.{{cite book
|last=Neimark
|first=Ira
|year=2006
|title=Crossing Fifth Avenue to Bergdorf Goodman
|page=163
|publisher=Specialist Press International
|location=New York
|isbn=1-56171-208-6}}{{cite news
|last=Hochswender
|first=Woody
|title=Patterns
|work=The New York Times
|date=May 10, 1988
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/10/style/patterns-707688.html
|access-date=June 3, 2011}} 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",{{cite news
|title=Paris Shirtmaker Extraordinaire
|last=Harris
|first=Leon
|date=August 1987
|work=Town & Country}} 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.{{cite news
|title=Shirt tales
|work=DNR
|date=February 12, 2007
|quote=The Colban family's textile expertise is embedded in the very soul of the store.}} After his death in 1994,{{cite news
|title=Denis Colban
|url=http://www.liberation.fr/vous/0101130000-denis-colban
|date=January 7, 1995
|access-date=May 22, 2009
|work=Libération |language=fr
|quote=Denis Colban, président de Charvet, ... est décédé le 28 décembre à l'âge de 74 ans à la suite d'un arrêt cardiaque.}} the company has been managed by his two children, Anne-Marie and Jean-Claude.
Charvet today
Of the five most prominent French shirtmakers of the 20th century—Bouvin, Charvet, Poirier, Seelio, and Seymous—all but Charvet have closed. It is also the only remaining shirtmaker on Place Vendôme.
The goal{{cite news
|last=Seckler
|first=Valerie
|title=Keeping a constant aim amid fashion's quick change
|work=WWD
|url=http://www.wwd.com/media/issues/2006/10/20/issue-81214.pdf
|access-date=August 30, 2011
|quote=Excellence, which he believes is emblematic of such brands as Chanel, Charvet, Apple and The Economist.}} of the company is to give its customers the option to custom order or customize everything{{cite news
|last=Won
|first=Nancy
|title=48 hours in Paris
|newspaper=Globe and Mail
|date=October 29, 2010
|quote=Everything is either custom-made or customizable, including ties and handkerchiefs.}} it sells, from neckwear{{cite web
|title=Charvet neckwear
|work=Robb Report recommends
|date=July 11, 2010
|url=http://robbreport.com/Robb-Recommends/Fashion/Charvet-Neckwear
|access-date=April 5, 2011}} (including bow ties{{cite news
|script-title=ru:Полет бабочки
|last=Максимова
|first=Яна
|date= December 2010
|work=Departures
|language=ru
|quote=Сейчас это единственный Дом во Франции, предлагающий своим клиентам галстуки-бабочки по индивидуальной выкройке – sur mesure.}}) to underwear,{{cite news
|title=Interview: Andre Leon Talley discusses the fashion industry
|last=Smiley
|first=Tavis
|date=June 18, 2003
|work=NPR Tavis Smiley}} with "the idea that a garment that carries a personal stamp exceeds any other form of luxury".Store director citation in: {{cite news
|last=Foreman
|first=Katya
|title=Catering to demanding customers with custom made
|work=WWD
|date=July 3, 2007}} Bolts of fabric on display throughout the store can be held against oneself to see how they really look.{{cite news
|url=http://www.departures.com/articles/paris-for-men-only
|title=Style: Paris for Men Only
|last=Vandewalde
|first=Mark
|date=March 2007
|work=Departures
|access-date=October 30, 2008
|archive-date=November 20, 2008
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120140644/http://www.departures.com/articles/paris-for-men-only
|url-status=dead
}} Charvet creates exclusive fabrics for all its collections{{cite news
|url=http://patrimoine.jalougallery.com/lofficiel-homme-2-numero_1-page_122-detailp-23-1590-122.html
|title=Charvet
|last=Martin-Bernard
|first=Frédéric
|date=January 2005
|work=L'Officiel Homme 2
|language=fr
|quote=Nous créons des tissus exclusifs pour toutes nos collections.
|access-date=May 21, 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713074719/http://patrimoine.jalougallery.com/lofficiel-homme-2-numero_1-page_122-detailp-23-1590-122.html
|archive-date=July 13, 2011}} and prides itself of going a long way to satisfy customers, remaking on request ties purchased years earlier{{cite news
|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/a914a15a-de16-11dc-9de3-0000779fd2ac.html
|title=How to reach second base online
|last=Imran
|first=Ahmed
|date=February 19, 2008
|work=Financial Times
|access-date=October 21, 2008}} or changing a shirt's frayed collar and cuffs.{{cite news
|title=Luxury Companies Focus on Service
|last=Loyer
|first=Michèle
|date=March 16, 1996
|work=International Herald Tribune}}
=Store=
The store is located in one of the hôtels particuliers of Place Vendôme, Number 28. This building has a three-story Jules Hardouin Mansart facade, behind which Charvet occupies seven floors,{{cite book
|title=The Penguin Guide to France
|last=Hesse
|first=Georgia
|publisher=Penguin Books
|year=1989
|page=146
|isbn=978-0-14-019902-4}} each owner on the Place having built to his own needs. This is the only store directly operated by Charvet.{{cite web
|url=http://www.frommers.com/destinations/paris/S28563.html
|title=Charvet Frommer's review
|publisher=Frommer's
|access-date=May 8, 2009}}
Per 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{{cite news
|url=http://www.style.com/stylefile/2009/03/tim-blanks-finds-philosophy-via-charvet/
|last=Blanks
|first=Tim
|title=Tim Blanks Finds Philosophy Via Charvet
|date=March 12, 2009
|work=Style.com
|access-date=May 6, 2009
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315085128/http://www.style.com/stylefile/2009/03/tim-blanks-finds-philosophy-via-charvet/
|archive-date=March 15, 2009
}} to the "signature"{{cite news
|last=Donnally
|first=Trish
|title=Crisp White Shirts A Fashion Must: They complement men's-wear styles.
|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle
|date=March 18, 1992}} silk passementerie-knot cufflinks invented here.{{#tag:ref
|Before acquiring its fame{{cite news
|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/09/20/104810322.pdf
|title=What new Autumn Blouses are like
|date=September 20, 1908
|work=The New York Times
|access-date=October 21, 2008
|quote=Charvet [link] buttons of twisted braid are quite the style.
|last=Bachofen
|first=Katrin
|title=Grosses Comeback der kleinen Knöpfe
|newspaper=Handelzeitung
|date=November 18, 2009
|language=de
|quote=Eine modische Alternative zu Manschettenknöpfen aus Edelmetall sind übrigens doppelte farbige Seidenknoten, die auf den Pariser Hemdenmacher Charvet zurückgehen und nach 1900 in Mode kamen.}} for the silk knots it introduced in 1904,{{cite book
|last=Corbett
|first=Patrick
|title=Verdura: The Life and Work of a Master Jeweler
|page=120
|year=2002
|publisher=Harry N. Abrams
|isbn=978-0-8109-3529-7}} Charvet had developed in the 19th century jewel cufflinks with his neighbor, the jeweler Cartier, including, around 1860, the then "famous boutons hongrois".{{cite book
|title=Cartier
|last=Nadelhoffer
|first=Hans
|page=25
|publisher=Chronicle Books
|location=San Francisco
|year=2007
|isbn=978-0-8118-6099-4}} At the end of the 20th century, Charvet also became "famous [for the] Charvet silk knot, but in 24-carat gold".{{cite book|title=All That Glitters
|last=Tryon
|first=Thomas
|page=[https://archive.org/details/allthatglitters00thom/page/225 225]
|publisher=Dell Publishing
|location=New York
|year=1987
|isbn=978-0-440-10111-6
|url=https://archive.org/details/allthatglitters00thom/page/225
}}
|group=n.}} 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"{{cite book
|title=101 Things to Buy Before You Die
|last=Davis
|first=Charlotte Williamson
|page=31
|publisher=New Holland Publishers
|location=London
|year=2007
|isbn=978-1-84537-885-1}} could be the largest selection of fine shirtings in the world,{{cite news
|url=http://www.departures.com/articles/charvet-and-the-well-tailored-man
|title=Charvet and the well-tailored man
|last=Boyer
|first=Bruce
|date=February 2002
|work=Departures
|access-date=October 2, 2008
|archive-date=September 22, 2008
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922092843/http://www.departures.com/articles/charvet-and-the-well-tailored-man
|url-status=dead
}} with over 6,000 different fabrics,{{cite web
|title=Charvet shirts
|work=Robb Report
|date=July 11, 2010
|url=http://robbreport.com/Robb-Recommends/Fashion/Charvet-Custom-Shirts
|access-date=September 17, 2011}} including a "legendary" Mur des Blancs (Wall of Whites){{cite news
|last=Foulkes
|first=Nicholas
|title=Wide-eyed boys witness the legendary Wall of Whites
|newspaper=Financial Times
|date=December 26, 2010
|url=http://www.howtospendit.com/#!/articles/3432-swellboy-26th
|access-date=September 17, 2011}} of four hundred different white fabrics in 104 shades of white{{cite news
|last=Tang
|first=David
|author-link=David Tang
|title=Panamas and paranoia
|newspaper=Financial Times
|date=September 16, 2011
|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d6b04a92-d930-11e0-884e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1YCYjIW4j
|access-date=September 17, 2011}} and another of two hundred solid blues. Customers 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".{{cite news
|last=Foulkes
|first=Nick
|date=January 31, 2009
|work=Newsweek
|title=The Measure of a Man
|url=http://www.newsweek.com/2009/01/30/the-measure-of-a-man.html
|access-date=June 28, 2010}} The richly colored and unique"{{cite book|last=Gault
|first=Henri
|author2=Millau, Christian
|title=THe Best of Paris
|publisher=Crown Publishers & Knapp Press
|year=1982
|isbn=978-0-517-54775-5
|page=[https://archive.org/details/bestofparisgault00gaul/page/439 439]
|url=https://archive.org/details/bestofparisgault00gaul/page/439
}} fabrics are presented in full bolts, not on swatch cards. Most of them are designed in-house by Charvet, for its own exclusive use{{cite news
|title=A Shirt's Tale
|last=Park
|first=Paula
|date=January 15, 2010
|work=The Wall Street Journal
|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB126349588317829071
|access-date=January 15, 2010}} and woven from specially chosen Gossypium barbadense cotton from the Nile delta.{{cite news
|title= Incomparably Charvet
|last=Cannon
|first=Michael
|date=January 2002
|work=Town & Country}} About a thousand new patterns are introduced each year,{{cite news
|title= Maison Charvet: L'Etoffe d'une Légende
|last=Anaya
|first=Josepha
|date=April 2009
|work=Balthazar
|language=fr
|quote=Chaque année nous proposons environ mille nouvelles références.}} all of them registered. The Charvet stripes are often multicolored, asymmetric,{{cite news
|last=Brunel
|first=Charlotte
|title=Obsession Les variations infinies de Charvet
|date=October 8, 2004
|work=Le Monde |language=fr
|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/acheter.cgi?offre=ARCHIVES&type_item=ART_ARCH_30J&objet_id=871468
|access-date=October 29, 2010}} thinner than English stripes, softer and subtler in the matching of shades.{{cite news
|title=Luxury
|last=Foulkes
|first=Nick
|date=June 2003
|work=GQ}}
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.
Charvet Place Vendôme shop window 02.jpg|Shop window
Charvet Place Vendôme first floor 11.jpg|First floor
Charvet Place Vendôme third floor 08.jpg|Third floor
Charvet Place Vendôme fourth floor 04.jpg|Fourth floor
Charvet Place Vendôme sixth floor 04.jpg|Sixth floor
=Products=
Shirts
The "unique" care for precision and symmetry{{cite web
|url=http://www.robbreport.com/2009-Readers-Choice-First-Picks.aspx
|title=2009 Reader's Choice: First Picks
|date=February 1, 2009
|work=Robb Report
|quote=Each Charvet shirt is a study in symmetry
|access-date=July 3, 2009
|archive-date=October 29, 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091029094754/http://www.robbreport.com/2009-Readers-Choice-First-Picks.aspx
|url-status=dead
}} expresses French classicism{{cite news
|title=Shirt tales
|last=Walther
|first=Gary
|date=May 1999
|work=Departures}}{{#tag:ref
|"Charvet is profoundly faithful to the soul of France" said Jean-Louis Dumas, a former CEO of Hermès.{{cite book|last=Flusser
|first=Alan
|author-link=Alan Flusser
|year=1996
|title=Style and the Man
|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780062701558/page/317 317]
|publisher=Harperstyle
|location=New York
|isbn=0-06-270155-X
|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780062701558/page/317
}}
|group=n.}} and is, according to Marie-Claude Siccard, a paradigm of the care for quality in luxury products.{{cite book
|last=Sicard
|first=Marie-Claude
|title=Luxe, mensonges et marketing
|year=2010
|publisher=Pearson Education France
|isbn=978-2-7440-6456-2
|language=fr
|quote=Dans le luxe on porte [à la qualité] une attention toute particulière et il faut en avoir fait l'expérience pour mesurer toute la distance qu'il peut y avoir entre une chemise sur mesure de chez Charvet et n'importe quelle chemise de confection courante, par exemple.
|page=150}} In particular, a lot of attention is given to the regularity of stitches and the matching of patterns.{{cite news
|url=http://acontinuouslean.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/feature-charvet-es.pdf
|format=Reprint
|access-date=June 2, 2009
|title=Shirt stories: a year in the life of a Charvet devotee
|last=Koh
|first=Wei
|date=February–March 2009
|work=The Rake}} On a typical striped ready-to-wear shirt and unlike most other makes,{{cite book
|last=Coffin
|first=David Page
|year=1993
|title=Shirtmaking: Developing Skills for Fine Sewing
|page=134
|publisher=The Taunton Press
|location=Newton
|isbn= 1-56158-015-5}} 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 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.{{cite news
|url=http://www.letemps.ch/Page/Uuid/03e16a18-18be-11de-ba03-1db89e7841fc/Laffaire_du_poignet
|title=L'affaire du poignet
|last=Fromont
|first=Valérie
|work=Le Temps
|date=March 25, 2009
|access-date=May 22, 2009
|language=fr
|quote=«Les mesures se prennent toujours avec la montre, explique-t-on chez le chemisier Charvet. Nous faisons le poignet plus ou moins large, selon que la personne souhaite que sa montre retombe sur l'avant du poignet ou reste cachée à l'intérieur. Beaucoup de nos clients ont deux types de chemises: celles pour le soir, destinées à être portées avec une montre plate, et d'autres pour la journée, avec une montre plus grosse.» Dans cette maison parisienne, on calcule pour les chemises sur mesure une ampleur d'un centimètre entre la peau et le tissu. Mais dans le prêt-à-porter, cette ampleur est souvent plus large pour que les mesures puissent convenir à des poignets plus larges et à la taille inconnue d'une montre.
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100211185329/http://letemps.ch/Page/Uuid/03e16a18-18be-11de-ba03-1db89e7841fc/Laffaire_du_poignet
|archive-date=February 11, 2010
}} 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,{{cite news
|url = http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Archives/CA_Show_Article/0,2322,702,00.html
|title = The Best Off-the-Rack Wardrobe
|last = Boyer
|first = Bruce
|work = Cigar Aficionado
|date = Autumn 1995
|access-date = December 3, 2008
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080916183136/http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Archives/CA_Show_Article/0,2322,702,00.html
|archive-date = September 16, 2008
|url-status = dead
|df = mdy-all
}} 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.{{cite news
|url=http://www.luxuryculture.com/goto2.html?url=w/magazine/0/0/0000002/0000864
|title=The perfect white shirt
|date=June 27, 2006
|work=Luxury Now
|access-date=October 4, 2008}} 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. The shirts are stitched with twin rows of single-needle tailoring, sewn one row at a time for minimum puckering and maximum fit.{{cite news
|title=Show me the money
|last=Ong
|first=Cat
|work=The Straits Times
|date=August 3, 1997}} There are twenty stitches per inch.{{cite book|title=Where to Wear: Paris 2004
|last=Fairchild
|first=Jill
|author2=Gerri Gallagher
|publisher=Where to Wear ll/Global
|year=2003
|page=[https://archive.org/details/wheretowear200400mitc/page/41 41]
|isbn=978-0-9720215-2-4
|url=https://archive.org/details/wheretowear200400mitc/page/41
}} Buttons are made from Australian mother-of-pearl, cut from the surface of the oyster shell for added strength and greater color clarity.{{cite web
|language=fr
|title=Dans les coulisses de charvet incomparable institution
|magazine=Dandy
|last=Boyer
|first=Pascal
|date=February 14, 2012
|url=http://www.dandy-magazine.com/dans-les-coulisses-de-charvet-incomparable-institution
|access-date=June 7, 2012}} For formal shirts, bibs are hand pleated.{{cite news
|title=Pure formality
|last=Van De Walle
|first=Mark
|date=November 2008
|work=Departures
|url=http://www.departures.com/articles/pure-formality
|access-date=May 23, 2010
|archive-date=June 29, 2011
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629234751/http://www.departures.com/articles/pure-formality
|url-status=dead
}} Though its traditional ready-to-wear shirts are trim, the company has also introduced in 2009 a "slim fit" line.{{cite news
|last=Koenig
|first=Gillian
|title=Transatlantic Appeal
|work=DNR
|date=April 7, 2008}}
The care involved in the process of making a bespoke shirt is, according to Lara Marlowe, an expression of French perfectionism.{{cite news
|title=Why I love living in Paris; Lara Marlowe and her cat Spike adore living in Paris - the pinnacle of civilisation, she says (and Spike, if he could speak, would agree)
|last=Marlowe
|first=Lara
|author-link=Lara Marlowe
|newspaper=The Irish Times
|date=December 19, 2003
|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-24700527.html
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181115080604/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-24700527.html
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=November 15, 2018
|access-date=April 15, 2012
|url-access=subscription }} It requires a minimum of 28 measurements and an initial version made in basic cotton.{{cite news
|title=A few upscale brands are proud to ignore the vagaries of seasonal fashion
|last=Treacy
|first=Karl
|date=March 5, 2004
|work=International Herald Tribune}} The fit is "full and snug at the same time".{{cite news
|url=http://www.departures.com/articles/great-white
|title=A great White
|date=December 2003
|last=Hainey
|first=Michael
|work=Departures
|access-date=October 10, 2008
|archive-date=August 8, 2007
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808054941/http://www.departures.com/articles/great-white
|url-status=dead
}} The minimum order is one shirt.{{cite book
|title=Capital
|year=2004
|volume=43
|page=145
|publisher=Capital Verlagsgesellschaft
|location=Köln
|language=de
|quote=Bei Nobel-Chemisier Charvet in Paris kann man ... auch mit einem einzigen Hemd oder eine Bluse einfangen.}} 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,{{#tag:ref
|Ready to wear shirts are made in the same place and with the same standards as bespoke. "We cannot ask people in the morning to work slow and then to work fast in the afternoon", says Jean-Claude Colban.
|group=n.}}doing everything except for the buttonholes and pressing the shirt. Each shirt takes thirty days to complete.{{cite news
|last=Cannon
|first=Michael
|title=The colors of Charvet
|work=Town and Country
|date=April 1, 2004
|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-20930420_ITM
|access-date=July 3, 2009}}
Charvet collar.jpg|Collar top and bottom.
Charvet cuff.jpg|Cuff top and bottom.
Charvet shoulder.jpg|Sleeve and yoke.
Charvet sleeve.jpg|Sleeve and placket.
Pyjamas
The jacket is made of 14 pieces and the pants of 5.{{cite news
|title=Le pyjama à rayures Charvet
|last=Simon
|first=François
|date=August 18, 2010
|work=Le Figaro
|language=fr}} 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, according to François Simon, a cult object.{{#tag:ref
|In James Neugass' Rain of Ashes (1947), the main character wants to be "buried in his monogrammed Charvet pyjamas".{{cite book
|last=Neugass
|first=James
|title=Rain of Ashes
|publisher=Harper
|location=New York
|year=1947
|page=178
}} Patrick Leigh Fermor, a British travel writer, took on his trips to the Andes "Charvet pyjamas and fourteen bottles of airport whiskey".{{cite book|last=Brothers
|first=Barbara
|author2=Gergits, Julia Marie
|title=British Travel Writers, 1940–1997
|publisher=Gales Group
|location=Detroit
|isbn=0-7876-3098-5
|year=1999
|page=[https://archive.org/details/britishtravelwri204brot/page/80 80]
|url=https://archive.org/details/britishtravelwri204brot/page/80
}}
|group=n.}}
Neckwear
File:Charvet Paris griffe passe-pan cravate motif rayures.JPG
File:Charvet Place Vendôme cravate en soie.jpg
Charvet ties, ranked as the best designer's ties in the US,{{cite news
|url=https://www.forbes.com/2004/05/26/cx_ns_0526feat.html
|title=The finest neckties
|last=Santelmann
|first=Neal
|date=May 26, 2004
|work=Forbes
|access-date=October 1, 2008}} are handmade,{{cite book
|last=Storey
|first=Nicholas
|year=2008
|title=History of Men's Fashion: What the Well Dressed Man is Wearing
|page=27
|publisher=Simon & Schuster
|location=New York
|isbn=978-1-84468-037-5}} generally from a thick multicolor brocade silk,{{cite news
|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E5DC1538F935A25752C1A961958260
|title= The Details; Fabrics Fit to Be Ties
|last=Colman
|first=David
|date=November 16, 1997
|work=The New York Times
|access-date=November 2, 2008}} of a high yarn count, often enhanced by the addition of a hidden color,{{cite web
|url=http://www.3luxe.com/best_ofs/Mens_Ties/Charvet
|title=Charvet
|access-date=July 3, 2009
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090906161645/http://www.3luxe.com/best_ofs/Mens_Ties/Charvet
|archive-date=September 6, 2009
}} producing a dense{{cite web
|url = http://www.esquire.com/style/bbb-resources/best-style-shops-paris
|title = Paris: Best Style Shops
|work = Esquire
|date = March 26, 2009
|access-date = May 21, 2009
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090602191601/http://www.esquire.com/style/bbb-resources/best-style-shops-paris
|archive-date = June 2, 2009
|url-status = dead
|df = mdy-all
}} 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,{{cite news
|url=http://archives.bilan.ch/BI/BILAN/luxesenjeux/article-2008-10-60/fondee-a-naples-en-1914-par-eugenio-marinella-la-maison-marinella-est-actuellement-dirigee-par-son
|title=Fondée à Naples en 1914 par Eugenio Marinella, la maison Marinella est actuellement dirigée par son petit-fils Maurizio qui dessine lui-même les motifs des soieries, toujours imprimées en Angleterre.
|date=October 1, 2008
|work=Bilan
|language=fr
|quote=Charvet, place Vendôme, produit 8000 modèles de cravates par an et réalise des sept plis sur mesure pour les clients les plus exigeants.
}}{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Jacquard woven on exclusive commission, with silk either alone or mixed with other precious yarns, such as cashmere,{{cite news
|url = http://www.esquire.com/style/fashion-story/ESQ1102-NOV_GUIDE_rev_?src=digg
|title = The Style Guide
|date = November 1, 2002
|work = Esquire
|access-date = May 6, 2009
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090217023919/http://www.esquire.com/style/fashion-story/ESQ1102-NOV_GUIDE_rev_?src=digg
|archive-date = February 17, 2009
|url-status = dead
|df = mdy-all
}} camel hair, bamboo yarn or covered with laminated precious metals, such as silver, gold or platinum,{{cite news
|title=Renouer avec la cravate
|last=Gallet
|first=Hervé
|date=March 2009}}{{cite news
|last=Carey
|first=Susan
|title=Not all that's gold glitters in a $14,000 pinstriped suit
|work=The Wall Street Journal
|date=December 15, 1999
|url=http://www.dlny.com/node/43
|access-date=April 25, 2011}} with techniques dating back to the 14th century when the popes were based in Avignon,{{#tag:ref
|The Avignon Papacy is the origin of the introduction of silk weaving in France.{{cite web
|title=La grande histoire de la soierie lyonnaise
|last=Demoule
|first=Philippe
|language=fr
|work=Canuserie
|url=http://www.canuserie.com/hist_soierie.pdf
|access-date=April 23, 2011
}}{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
|group=n.}} 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,{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} Charvet offers, according to Bernhard Roetzel, the largest range of woven silk neckties in the world.{{cite book
|last=Roetzel
|first=Bernard
|author-link=Bernhard Roetzel
|title=Gentleman: A Timeless Fashion
|url=https://archive.org/details/gentlemantimeles00bern
|url-access=registration
|publisher=Könneman
|year=1999
|page=[https://archive.org/details/gentlemantimeles00bern/page/80 80]|isbn=9783829020299
}} The ties collection, sometime "unmistakably bold" or "witty [and] wicked",{{cite news
|url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/63166?tid=relatedcl
|title=Footwear: The Sole Of Sexiness
|last=Thomas
|first=Dana
|author-link= Dana Thomas
|work=Newsweek
|date=February 23, 2003
|access-date=November 22, 2008}} 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.){{cite news
|url = http://www.fineliving.com/fine/genuine_article/article/0,FINE_1416_2725546,00.html
|archive-url = https://archive.today/20130123153349/http://www.fineliving.com/fine/genuine_article/article/0,FINE_1416_2725546,00.html
|url-status = dead
|archive-date = January 23, 2013
|title = Choosing the Perfect Necktie
|last = Dye
|first = Morris
|work = The Genuine Article
|access-date = November 2, 2008
}}
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.{{cite news
|url=http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/Examples/Webparts/Listings-and-viewers/Repeater-with-custom-query.aspx?page=295
|title=Donkey or Elephant?
|last=Tisch
|first=Carol
|date=September 5, 2008
|work=Sarasota
|access-date=October 16, 2008
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402100320/https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/examples/webparts/listings-and-viewers/repeater-with-custom-query.aspx?page=295
|archive-date=April 2, 2016
|df=mdy-all
}}{{#tag:ref
|During the same campaign, the Republican party spent $150,000 on dressing Sarah Palin "for the part of vice-president",{{cite news
|title=Republicans spent $150,000 on Sarah Palin's clothes
|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4991288.ece
|last=Booth
|first=Jenny
|work=The Times |location=London |date=October 22, 2008
|access-date=November 25, 2008}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} part of which was used on Charvet ties for her husband Todd.{{cite magazine
|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/11/sarah-palins-150000-shopping-spree.html
|title=Sarah Palin's $150,000 Shopping Spree
|date=November 17, 2008
|magazine=Vanity Fair
|access-date=November 25, 2008
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201020106/http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/11/sarah-palins-150000-shopping-spree.html
|archive-date=December 1, 2008
}}
|group=n.}}
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".{{cite news
|last=Lyons
|first=Walter
|title=A Return to Tying the Knot; Bow Ties Are Finding Favor as Day-Wear Accoutrements With a Younger Generation
|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal
|date=July 22, 2011}}
The eponymous style n° 30 of the book{{cite book
|last1=Mosconi
|first1=Davide
|last2=Villarosa
|first2=Riccardo
|title=188 Nodi da Collo – Cravatte e collettti: technice, storia, immagini.
|publisher=Idea Libri
|location=Milano
|year=1984
|isbn=88-7082-030-0
|page=35
|language=it
}} on the 188 styles of tie knots{{#tag:ref
|Despite its name, this book does not present an exhaustive list of all possible tie knots, which have been demonstrated to be only 85, but also refers to bow ties, scarves and squares.{{cite web
|url=http://rudimatematici-lescienze.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2009/05/18/nodi-di-cravatta-prima-parte/
|title=Nodi di cravatta
|work=Rudi Matematici
|publisher=le Scienze
|last1=d'Alembert
|first1=Rudy
|last2=Riddle
|first2=Alice
|last3=Rezierovic Silverbrahms
|first3=Piotr
|date= May 18, 2009
|access-date=December 29, 2009
|language=it}}
|group=n.}} is a three layered bow-tie worn by a woman, the constitutive ribbons being stitched together behind the neck.
Literary allusions and brand image
{{Wikiquote|Charvet Place Vendôme}}
{{cquote|Sebastian entered – dove-grey flannel, white crêpe-de-Chine shirt, a Charvet tie, my tie as it happened, a pattern of postage stamps.
|10 px|10 px|Evelyn Waugh}}
References to Charvet in modern British or North American fiction illustrate the brand's identity: they help describe socially a character by its external appearance, such as elegance, nobility,{{cite book
|last=Maugham
|first=Somerset
|author-link=Somerset Maugham
|year=1944
|title=The Razor's Edge
|title-link=The Razor's Edge
|page=[https://archive.org/details/razorsedgenovl00maug/page/138 138]
|publisher=Doubleday
|location=New York
|isbn=1-4000-3420-5
}} wealth{{cite book
|last=Wolfe
|first=Tom
|author-link=Tom Wolfe
|year=1999
|title=A Man in Full
|url=https://archive.org/details/maninfullnovel1998wolf
|url-access=registration
|page=[https://archive.org/details/maninfullnovel1998wolf/page/97 97]
|publisher=Bantam Books
|location=New York
|isbn=0-553-58093-0}} or occupation.{{cite book|last=Ludlum
|first=Robert
|author-link=Robert Ludlum
|year=2001
|title=The Sigma Protocol
|page=[https://archive.org/details/sigmaprotocol00ludl/page/145 145]
|publisher=Macmillan
|location=New York
|isbn=0-312-98251-8
|url=https://archive.org/details/sigmaprotocol00ludl/page/145
}} Examples of Charvet's "brand emotion"{{cite web
|url=http://www.ktu.lt/libs/get_inzeko.asp?d=51&p=1392-2758-2007-1-51-069.pdf
|title=Relationship of Brand Identity and Image
|page=70
|author1=Vytautas Janonis
|author2=Aiste Dovaliene
|author3=Regina Virvilaite
|access-date=October 24, 2008
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716122316/http://www.ktu.lt/libs/get_inzeko.asp?d=51&p=1392-2758-2007-1-51-069.pdf
|archive-date=July 16, 2011
}} are literary allusions where the reference to the brand denotes a character's taste{{cite book
|last=Maugham
|first=Somerset
|author-link=Somerset Maugham
|year=1953
|title=Christmas Holiday
|page=303
|publisher=Heinemann
|location=New Hampton}} or some of his psychological traits such as cheerfulness,{{cite book
|last=Marsh
|first=Ngaio
|author-link=Ngaio Marsh
|year=1998
|title=Killer Dolphin
|page=25
|publisher=St. Martin's Press
|location=New York
|isbn=0-312-97010-2}} detachment,{{cite book
|last=Barber
|first=Noel
|author-link=Noel Barber
|year=1977
|title=The Natives Were Friendly, So We Stayed the Night
|page=157
|publisher=Macmillan Publishers
|location=London
|isbn= 0-333-22558-9}} eccentricity,{{cite book
|last=Conran
|first= Shirley
|author-link= Shirley Conran
|year=1992
|title=Lace
|page= 39
|publisher=Penguin Group
|location=London
|isbn= 0-7139-0187-X}} decadence{{cite book
|last=Monsarrat
|first=Nicholas
|author-link=Nicholas Monsarrat
|title=Smith and Jones
|url=https://archive.org/details/smithjones00mons
|url-access=registration
|year=1963
|page=[https://archive.org/details/smithjones00mons/page/13 13]|publisher=New York, W. Sloane Associates
}}
or mischief.{{cite book
|last=Banville
|first=John
|author-link=John Banville
|year=1998
|title=The Untouchable
|url=https://archive.org/details/untouchable00banv_0
|url-access=limited
|page=[https://archive.org/details/untouchable00banv_0/page/9 9]
|publisher=Vintage Books
|location=New York
|isbn=0-679-76747-9}}
Clients
{{Main list|List of Charvet customers}}
Modern customers include French presidents François Mitterrand{{cite web
|url=http://www.tajan.com/pdf/8850.pdf
|title=Vente Mitterrand
|language=fr
|access-date=October 3, 2008
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716190904/http://www.tajan.com/pdf/8850.pdf
|archive-date=July 16, 2011
}} and Jacques Chirac,{{cite book
|last=Probst
|first=Jean-François
|year=2007
|title=Chirac, mon ami de trente ans
|page=ch. 6
|no-pp=yes
|language=fr
|quote=Il envoie le chauffeur lui acheter des boutons de manchettes ou ses chemises faites sur mesure chez Charvet
|publisher=Denoël
|location=Paris
|isbn=978-2-207-25824-8}} American presidents John F. Kennedy{{#tag:ref
|Kennedy wore linen handkerchieves from Charvet{{cite news
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/19/style/presidential-chic-from-jabots-to-polyester.html
|title=Presidential Chic, From Jabots To Polyester
|last=Lewis
|first=Neil A.
|date=January 19, 1997
|work=The New York Times
|access-date=May 7, 2009}} and had the labels of his Charvet shirts removed, in order to avoid evocation of an upper-class attitude. One of his Charvet made shirts is exhibited in the Checkpoint Charlie museum.{{cite news
|url=http://www.finchsquarterly.com/3775/checkpoint-charvet/
|title=Checkpoint Charvet
|last=Foulkes
|first=Nick
|date=October 23, 2009
|work=Finch's Quarterly Review
|access-date=December 29, 2009
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091030112341/http://www.finchsquarterly.com/3775/checkpoint-charvet/
|archive-date=October 30, 2009
}}
|group=n.}} and Ronald Reagan, French actors Catherine Deneuve and Philippe Noiret,{{cite book
|last=Noiret
|first=Philippe
|title=Mémoire cavalière
|page=7
|publisher=Laffont
|location=Paris
|year=2007
|isbn=978-2-221-10793-5
|language= fr}} American movie stars Sofia Coppola{{cite news
|url=http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/travel/tmagazine/24coppola.html?ref=tmagazine&pagewanted=all
|title=Sofia Coppola's Paris
|last=Hirschberg
|first=Lynn
|date=September 24, 2006
|work=The New York Times Magazine
|access-date=October 8, 2008
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100605110708/http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/travel/tmagazine/24coppola.html?ref=tmagazine&pagewanted=all
|archive-date=June 5, 2010
|df=mdy-all
}} and Bruce Willis,{{cite news
|url=http://www.bild.de/BTO/leute/standards/koerzdoerfer/2007/06/18/koerzdoerfers-gesellschaft/willis-bruce-tod-interview.html
|title=Ich umarme jeden Tag den Tod
|last=Körzdörfer
|first=Norbert
|date=June 18, 2007
|work=Bild
|quote=Er trägt einen grauen "Charvet"-Maßanzug (nur 1 Knopf wie JFK, aufgeknöpftes Maßhemd).
|language= de
|access-date=October 21, 2008}} fashion designers Yves Saint Laurent{{cite news
|url=http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/goods/style/2007/03/23/Get-Shirty
|title=Get shirty
|last=Soltes
|first=Eileen
|date=April 2007
|work=Portfolio
|access-date=October 1, 2008}} and Jasper Conran. (See also: List of Charvet customers.).
{{Clear}}
For various reasons, some customers, such as Charles Haughey or Bernard-Henri Lévy, "became synonymous with Charvet".{{cite news
|url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/auction-bidders-buy-some-of-that-haughey-glitz-1786779.html
|title=Auction bidders buy some of that Haughey glitz
|last=O'Brien
|first=Jason
|work=The Independent |location=London
|date=June 24, 2009
|access-date=July 2, 2009}}
Notes
{{Reflist|group="n."|colwidth=25em}}
Sources
{{Reflist|colwidth=25em}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{Official website}}
- [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/158842 Ascot] at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/84391 Robe] at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charvet Place Vendome}}
Category:Clothing companies of France
Category:French fashion designers
Category:Companies based in Paris
Category:Clothing brands of France
Category:Fashion accessory brands
Category:Companies established in 1838
Category:Privately held companies of France
Category:History of clothing (Western fashion)
Category:British royal warrant holders