The Original House
The documented history of Philippe Salvet, the French fashion name the Maison accompanies in its revival, set out from the records that survive and from nothing else.
Philippe Salvet was a French fashion figure whose work was associated with Paris, Nice and Saint-Tropez during the mid-to-late twentieth century. His name belongs to a distinctive period in European fashion, when clothing, travel, architecture, cinema and Mediterranean life increasingly influenced one another, and when ready-to-wear took shape on the Côte d’Azur.
The original designer is deceased. The house that carries his name today is a revival: contemporary work, made now, grounded in tailoring, craftsmanship, natural materials and considered design. The revival is not the original house continued without interruption, and these pages do not present it as such. What follows is the record.
A pair of trousers in Paris
The Palais Galliera, the fashion museum of the City of Paris, holds a Philippe Salvet garment in its collection: a “Pantalon”, corsair trousers with an elephant-leg flare, laced at the front and the back, made of alternating black and ecru bands of fabric sewn on the bias. The museum dates its production to about 1972.
Its woven label is recorded in full: “Philippe Salvet / modèle déposé / made in France / Nice - St-Tropez / 100% coton / teint à la main” — one hundred per cent cotton, dyed by hand. The garment is catalogued under museum number 1985.1.456 and entered the collection after 29 December 1985.
Read the museum record at Paris Musées Collections
The Recorded VoiceInterviews in the archives
The Archives départementales des Alpes-Maritimes hold recorded interviews with Philippe Salvet, catalogued in the Corpus Récit de vie under reference 14AV147. The recordings were made in 2013 and published online in 2014.
Their stated subjects are his early professional career, his interest in fashion photography, his involvement in ready-to-wear, the development of fashion in Saint-Tropez, his connection to Lothar’s, his move to Nice in 1971, and his work during the 1950s through the 1980s.
Ready-to-wear on the Côte d’Azur
How resort clothing became ready-to-wear between Nice and Saint-Tropez, read through the garments and the interviews rather than through nostalgia.
The garment, examined
The bias bands, the lacing, the hand-dyed cotton: the Galliera trousers taken on their construction, in the manner of The Considered Object.
The revival of the name
What it means to make new work under a documented name: interpretation of a design philosophy, presented as contemporary work.
Documented history is presented as heritage. Contemporary work is presented as new. No founding date, collection, campaign, collaboration or quotation is stated in the Maison that the records above do not support.
The photographs throughout the Maison are contemporary. The figure who recurs in them, photographed from behind and never facing the camera, belongs to the present-day Maison. He is not the original designer, and no contemporary photograph here is presented as archival material.
The revival, worn
Clothing and collections are the work of Philippe Salvet, presented at the fashion house itself.
philippesalvet.com