Château Voltaire, currently the undisputedly coolest (and loveliest) hotel in Paris —with the coolest (and loveliest) general manager, Emilie Perello-Lhermet—is launching its own small line of clothing. There’s a black hoodie, a tee, and some sports socks, all discreetly bearing the name of Château Voltaire or the initials CV, and an artist sketch of the exterior (like one of those vintage drawings you might see on the bouquinistes stands by the Seine) on the back of the clothes, and that’s about it. Small, but perfectly formed—just like the place itself.
“As I have a ready-to-wear brand, people kept asking me if I was going to do a collaboration,” says Thierry Gillier, owner of Château Voltaire and founder of the label Zadig et Voltaire. “The interest was rising, and I thought it was a fun thing to do, so I decided to create a capsule for the hotel on its own.” Given the louche rock and roll vibe of his fashion label, it’s unsurprising that the sketch of the hotel on the shirts and hoodies has a band-tour vibe to it.
“I was always attracted,” he says, “to vintage t-shirts, which inspired me for the print.” Yet this small collection reflects the hotel in other ways, too: For all its exquisite design, the property is also pretty laid back and relaxed—and so are the clothes. “I wanted to focus on items which are unisex and easy to wear; casual and comfortable,” says Gillier.
Yet the ironic and playful branding is also reflective of fashio.
