PARIS — For as long as he can remember, Charles Sébline has been obsessed with clothes. One of his earliest childhood memories is of dressing up as Mickey Mouse in a jacket made of red felt, and he still remembers the exact texture of its black buttons.
“It’s about emotion,” he said. “I’ve always had this thing for detail and for trying to make something the best that I possibly could.”
These days, he channels that energy into his brand Sébline, which specializes in the kind of exquisitely crafted men’s shirts that women just love to borrow (Cate Blanchett is a fan, and Lily Collins wore one of his designs in the hit Netflix series “Emily in Paris.”)
Born in France of a French father and an English mother, Sébline has always had a foot in both cultures, so it stands to reason that his designs combine French rigor with a touch of British eccentricity.
Sébline’s signature striped painter’s shirt.
Courtesy of Sébline
His fall 2025 collection includes dandyish cotton poplin shirts with satin bibs and ties in watery shades of almond green and lilac.
His signature painter’s shirts in two-ply Italian cotton poplin come in bold primary color stripes with contrasting bibs, while other styles are trimmed with Moroccan thread embroidery or military-inspired frogging.
Sébline studied at Central Saint Martins in London and had a charmed entry into the fashion industry. When Vivienne Westwood came to give a talk at the school, they bonded over their shared love of Yves Saint Laurent and she ended up offering him an internship, which coincided with her Anglomania collection.
From there, he spent almost two years at Yves Saint Laurent soaking up sewing techniques in the workshop of Monsieur Jean-Pierre, the house’s head of tailoring.
“I can picture him making a toile, and he was so quick,” Sébline recalled, snapping his fingers for emphasis. “Just like that, like a dancer, like Nureyev or something — it was just so effortless.”
He developed his love of shirts while working at Saint Laurent under Tom Ford, when he would hit secondhand stores for research. These days, Sébline can spend hours perfecting details like aligning the stripes on a sleeve with those on a cuff. “I guess I’m totally obsessive, quite neurotic,” he confessed.
Charles Sébline
© Pamela Berkovic/Courtesy of Sébline
Yet the shirts are made to be worn with a certain nonchalance. “I like the idea of it being something which you can pull out of the washing machine, drip dry, and just throw on and wear with a pair of jeans and a pair of boots, and you’re done,” he said.
Priced at $285 for a collarless shirt to $775 for a striped shawl-collared style with frogging, the collection is carried in 25 points of sale worldwide, including Bergdorf Goodman and Newport Beach, Calif., boutique A’maree’s in the U.S.; United Arrows and Ron Herman in Japan, and concept store Trois Pommes in Zurich.
Sébline is mulling the launch of e-commerce, but the nature lover in him likes to keep things small. Meanwhile, he continues to hone his craft.
“I love the idea of designing things that are really going to last. I’m probably less interested in fashion than I am in making beautiful clothes,” he said. “With time you try and go towards what’s essential, and you just try and make it as distilled as possible.”
Sébline’s officer’s pajama shirt and pants.
Courtesy of Sébline
