A Lifelong Love for French Fashion
My name is Eugen, and I am the founder and sole curator of FrenchDesignerVault.com. Welcome to my digital atelier—a space built from a passion for French fashion that started long before I knew how to code.
This website is the culmination of a journey that began in the cluttered bedroom of my childhood home. My first real website—a hand-coded HTML labor of love—went live in 2004. I was still in high school, armed with dial-up internet, a stack of French Vogue and L’Officiel magazines, and an obsession that my classmates found baffling.
While they were worried about pop quizzes, I was worried about tracking down a specific Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche campaign or identifying the season of a Nicolas Ghesquière-era Balenciaga piece. The internet back then was the Wild West—finding authentic information about French fashion houses felt like being a detective. You had to know the archives, recognize the atelier tags, and spot a counterfeit from a grainy thumbnail.
That first site was a simple catalog of my mood boards and the collections I dreamed of owning. It was clunky, but it connected me with other obsessives across the Atlantic. Late-night forum discussions with collectors in Paris, the thrill of finding a vintage runway photo that had never been scanned—that was my high school education.
The passion was too big for one country. In 2005, fueled by the same restless energy, I built the first iteration of its sister site, ItalianDesignerVault.com, to honor the masters of Italian fashion. If France was about couture and avant-garde draping, Italy was the master of luxurious leather and glamour. I needed both.
From Hobbyist to Curator
Today, FrenchDesignerVault.com is the culmination of that teenage obsession. We focus exclusively on the designers who define French style—from the heritage houses of Chanel, Dior, and Saint Laurent to the contemporary visionaries like Jacquemus and Marine Serre.
We don’t just list items; we tell the stories behind the seams. When you read a description on this site, it’s informed by years of studying archives, understanding fabric composition, and verifying provenance. Our expertise lies in the details that matter: the cut of a blazer, the year of a handbag release, the authenticity of a signature.
We have spent two decades building relationships with trusted collectors and sources, ensuring that our commitment to authenticity is absolute.
The Italian Connection
Of course, you cannot tell the story of fashion without acknowledging the dialogue between France and Italy. That’s why ItalianDesignerVault.com remains an integral part of our world, covering the masters from Armani to Prada.
Whether you are looking for a vintage sous-pied from Paris or a couture gown from Milan, we offer a curated gateway to the world’s most influential fashion cultures.
Looking Forward
We are building more than a store. We are building a vault—a trusted archive for the discerning collector, the curious student, and anyone who believes that fashion is more than clothing: it is history you can wear.
Merci et bonne découverte.
Eugen
Founder, FrenchDesignerVault.com & ItalianDesignerVault.com