Samy Chalon

Samy Chalon opened his boutique on rue Charlot nearly seven years ago, and has since built up a fiercely devoted clientele on both sides of the Atlantic that swears by his whimsical, feminine designs. A fashion insider—he’s designed for Céline, the luxe lingerie-and-bathing-suit label Erès and Revillon furs, among others—Chalon first focused his own line on beautiful hand-knit separates, imaginative and never bulky, in natural fibers like mohair, cashmere and cotton. In the summer, Chalon found it hard to keep women interested in knits, so he branched out into breezy dresses and little gathered skirts—many of them one-off—using vintage silk scarves ingeniously pieced together in perfect harmony. (Among the scarves used, I recognized Jean Patou, Balenciaga and Balmain.) There are also simple tops and piece-dyed silk separates in rich colors—indigo, raspberry, creamy yellow. For summer 2012, Chalon’s scarf dresses share the racks with items that range from a graceful front-gathered silk dress in azure blue to a diaphanous indigo cotton tunic to be worn alone or over sexy cropped pants in overdyed African prints. The vintage-inspired beaded cotton knit cardigans attest to Chalon’s continued interest in evolving the line. “I like doing different things,” says Chalon.“It keeps the work challenging and interesting.” It also keeps his fans very happy.

24 rue Charlot, 3rd, 01.44.59.39.16

Originally published in the July/August 2011 issue of France Today