Chanel acquires Charvet, the Place Vendôme shirtmaker

Chanel has acquired full ownership of Charvet, the Paris shirtmaker founded on Place Vendôme in 1838, according to WWD. The deal includes the house's six-floor building on the square and its production workshop in Saint-Gaultier in central France. Financial terms were not disclosed; Man of Many reports Charvet's annual revenue at an estimated €10 million to €15 million. The shirtmaker, whose clients Bloomberg's coverage summarised through Winston Churchill, employs around 40 people at the Place Vendôme store and another 60 at the workshop.

The Colban family, owners since 1965, sold because the next generation has pursued careers outside fashion, leaving no family successor. The family is expected to remain at the helm for at least another year, while Chanel fashion president Bruno Pavlovsky takes over as president of Charvet. The shirtmaker joins a portfolio of Chanel-owned specialists that includes Eres, Orlebar Brown, Barrie, Maison Michel and Goossens, alongside several vineyards.

The purchase formalises a relationship that runs from Gabrielle Chanel, who bought Charvet shirts for Arthur 'Boy' Capel, to creative director Matthieu Blazy, who had Charvet make three oversize cotton shirts for his debut Chanel collection last October, pieces since worn by Nicole Kidman and Jacob Elordi; the resulting collaboration sold out quickly. Pavlovsky framed the logic plainly: 'Now we have a name, Chanel, for women, and a name for men, Charvet.' Securing craft capacity has become a strategic priority across the industry: LVMH and Hermès have spent years buying tanneries and specialist ateliers, and Chanel has assembled its own stable of artisan houses for decades. For a house that almost never buys at brand level, the acquisition secures a menswear name without diluting the Chanel brand itself, and adds another address on Place Vendôme.

What to watch is how far Chanel develops Charvet beyond its bespoke and ready-to-wear shirtmaking, whether the Blazy collaboration becomes a recurring commercial line, and how leadership passes once the Colban family, which has run the house for six decades, steps back.

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