Chanel has designs on men — if not men’s wear, exactly.
The French luxury brand announced on Thursday that it had acquired Charvet, the storied Place Vendôme maison known for its bespoke shirts, ties and pajamas. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Now we have a name, Chanel, for women, and a name for men, Charvet,” Bruno Pavlovsky, the president of fashion at Chanel, said in a video interview.
“Even if Chanel is about women, we see more men coming in,” he continued. “And even if Charvet is mostly about men, we see a lot of women going there to have shirts made. It’s up to the client — everyone is welcome. That’s the beauty and the secret of the approach.”
The acquisition reflects what Pavlovsky sees as a new gender-agnostic approach among its customers. Indeed, he said, it might even herald “the beginning of haute couture for men.”
Chanel has already put its money where its theory is, signing ASAP Rocky and Pedro Pascal as brand ambassadors, though the company does not have a dedicated men’s wear line — or, Pavlovsky said, any plans to create one. With the addition of Charvet, it has doubled down on the idea.
It can afford to: Chanel reported revenues of $19.3 billion and an operating profit of $4.7 billion in 2025. It is one of the bright spots in the luxury sector, thanks to the buzz around the designer Matthieu Blazy, who was appointed the company’s artistic director in December 2024. His first collections have created shopping frenzies in Paris, London and Shanghai.
The world’s first dedicated shirt shop, Charvet was founded in 1838 by Joseph-Christophe Charvet, the son of Napoleon’s dresser, and family-owned until 1965, when the Charvets sold the company to Denis Colban, then their fabric supplier. It is now run by Colban’s children, Jean-Claude and Anne-Marie.
Charvet’s shirts have been memorialized in such books as Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” and Tom Wolfe’s “A Man in Full.” King Edward VII was a loyal customer and awarded Charvet a royal warrant, a rarity for a non-British brand. Other fans have included Gary Cooper, John F. Kennedy, Charles de Gaulle, David Hockney and Sofia Coppola — as well as the former Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, who, Pavlovsky said, gave him some Charvet shirts as a present.
Chanel’s relationship with the house began just under a century ago, when Coco Chanel started borrowing the (yes, Charvet) shirts of her boyfriend, the British shipping merchant and polo player Boy Capel. The arrangement was formalized last October, when Blazy — inspired by Coco’s style — collaborated with the brand on a trio of shirts for his first collection. Nicole Kidman wore one to sit front row; Jacob Elordi modeled another a few weeks later.
The attention thrust Charvet into the spotlight and, Pavlovsky said, got Jean-Claude and Anne-Marie Colban, 71 and 69, thinking about the brand’s future (none of their children work in the business). The sale to Chanel was their idea, Pavlovsky added.
Charvet has estimated revenues of 10 million to 15 million euros a year (approximately $11 million to $17 million), according to Luca Solca, a luxury analyst at Bernstein. Its assets include 100 employees, an atelier outside Paris and one store, the building on Place Vendôme, which Chanel has also acquired. (Solca put its value at €100 million, or $114 million.)
The brand’s reputation far exceeds its physical footprint. British Vogue called Charvet shirts “the ultimate staple for those with a reverence for quality basics and a disregard for price tags,” adding that the brand itself had been “elevated to near-religious status among fashion insiders.”
“When you look at the different top brands or top houses in Paris, you don’t have many gems,” Pavlovsky said. “This one is a gem.” As an additional enticement, he noted, Charvet’s made-to-measure service and approach to fabric and finishing were similar to those of Chanel.
For example, he said, “There is not one blue at Charvet: There are 500 blues.”
The brand will not become part of the Chanel group of “maisons d’art” such as the embroiderer Lesage and the goldsmith Goossens. Like other Chanel-owned names including Eres, Orlebar Brown and Barrie, it will be run as a stand-alone company. The Colbans will stay on for at least a year to ensure a smooth transition.
Pavlovsky said a Charvet show was unlikely in the future — but at some point, he acknowledged, a dedicated creative director would be hired. Expect the job speculation to begin now.
