House Codes: Reading Celine, Saint Laurent, Loewe, Berluti, Dior Homme and Givenchy

A house is older than its designers. Creative directors arrive, rewrite the silhouette and leave, but the codes stay: the Triomphe chain, the Cassandre monogram, the Anagram, the Scritto calligraphy, the Oblique, the 4G. A collector who can read them can place a jacket by house and decade from across a room, which matters when the label inside has faded or been removed. This guide is a reading list for six houses whose ready-to-wear is now kept, in quantity and in remarkable condition, in Japan.

Celine: the Triomphe and the teddy

Founded in Paris in 1945 by Céline Vipiana as a children's shoemaker, Celine took its emblem, the Triomphe, from the chain that surrounds the Arc de Triomphe, in 1972. Phoebe Philo's decade from 2008 made the house a byword for quiet, architectural womenswear. Hedi Slimane's arrival in 2018 removed the accent from the name, added menswear in 2019 and brought the codes he carries everywhere: the slim rock-and-roll silhouette, the teddy and varsity jacket in wool and leather, the denim trucker with embellished sleeves, the crystal-studded bomber. Those jackets are the Celine a Japanese collector now owns. Look for the Triomphe on buttons and zip pulls, the narrow shoulder and the short body. The Celine room holds them.

Saint Laurent: the biker and the Cassandre

Yves Saint Laurent's monogram was drawn by the poster artist Cassandre in 1961, and the house has used it on leather ever since. For ready-to-wear the code is the black lambskin biker: Slimane's L01, cut from 2012 as the house became Saint Laurent Paris, and continued under Anthony Vaccarello from 2016. The asymmetric zip, the belted hem and the quilted shoulder panels are the signature, and the leather is lambskin so soft it marks if you look at it. Size matters: the cut is narrow, and a 52 fits like another house's 48. See the Saint Laurent room and the rider jacket guide.

Loewe: the Anagram and Spanish leather

Loewe began in Madrid in 1846 as a leather workshop and remains the house whose leather is its argument. The Anagram, four interlocking Ls drawn by Vicente Vela in 1970, is the mark; the heavy, supple calfskin, the Made in Spain label and the saddle-stitched edges are the proof. Jonathan Anderson's years from 2013 made the house fashionable again and gave it the Puzzle, the Flamenco and a knowing, craft-led ready-to-wear, including the leather double rider that Japanese collectors kept. Loewe leather should be inspected for the Anagram embossed on the inside, and for the quality of the edge paint.

Berluti: the Scritto and the patina

Berluti began in Paris in 1895 as a bootmaker to the city's dandies. Its leather code is the patina, built up by hand in layers of colour, and its graphic code is the Scritto, a script taken from an eighteenth-century letter and engraved across Venezia calfskin. Ready-to-wear came late, from 2011 under Alessandro Sartori, and the Scritto leather bomber, the Andy loafer and the Un Jour briefcase are the pieces to know. Scritto leather should show the script evenly, with the patina deeper in the folds. The jackets surface in Japan with their tags still attached, because they were bought by men who already owned the shoes.

Dior Homme: the Slimane silhouette and the Oblique

Dior's menswear was remade in 2000 when Hedi Slimane cut the Dior Homme silhouette, narrow enough to change how a generation of men dressed. Kris Van Assche kept the tailoring from 2007; Kim Jones, from 2018, renamed the line Dior Men and brought back the Oblique canvas of 1967, the Saddle, and collaborations with Hajime Sorayama, Kaws and Yoon Ahn. A Dior Homme label dates a piece to before 2018; the Dior Paris script and the Oblique belong to the Jones years. Calfskin blousons with the script, in pale colours, are the pieces most often kept in Japan; see the Dior room and our guide to the Saddle.

Givenchy: dark romanticism and the 4G

Hubert de Givenchy founded his house in 1952 and dressed Audrey Hepburn; Riccardo Tisci, from 2005 to 2017, rebuilt it around a gothic, Catholic imagery, Rottweilers and Madonnas on sweatshirts, and the stars and the 4G monogram. Clare Waight Keller and Matthew Williams followed, and Sarah Burton arrived in 2024. Tisci-era pieces are the ones with a collector market, and the house remains in our Hunting Salon rather than the archive for now.

Reading any house: a checklist

• Sizing. The Paris houses size in numbers, 44, 46, 48, 50, and each cuts differently: Saint Laurent and Celine narrow, Loewe and Berluti fuller. Our listings give flat measurements; compare them with a jacket you own.
• Labels and style numbers. Most houses print a style number on the care label (Saint Laurent's six digits plus a fabric code; Celine's and Dior's alphanumeric references). The number identifies the season and confirms the piece against the house's own records.
• Hardware. Zips are branded: Riri and Lampo pulls engraved with the house name, or the Triomphe, the Anagram or the CD. A plain zip on a Paris jacket is a warning.
• Condition. Lambskin scuffs; silk linings split at the armhole; crystals go missing from embellished pieces. The Japanese grade, explained in Japanese condition ranks, records all of this.

Why Japan

Japanese men bought Dior Homme in 2001, Saint Laurent in 2013 and Celine Homme in 2019 at full price from the boutiques in Ginza and Omotesando, and kept them: boxed, tagged, dry-cleaned and worn for a season. That is why a Berluti bomber with its tags, a Loewe rider unworn and a Celine teddy jacket in its first colour surface here, and why the archive of these houses is, in practice, a Japanese archive.

In the archive now

• Celine · Saint Laurent · Dior · Balenciaga
• Designer jackets · Designer leather jackets
• Designer shoes · Designer wallets
• The Japan Luxury Archive

Continue reading

• Designer Jackets from Japan: Blousons, Varsity Jackets and Riders from the Great Houses
• Louis Vuitton Ready-to-Wear
• Hermès Ready-to-Wear
• Raf Simons: Collecting the Archive
• Glossary of Pre-owned Luxury Terms
• All collector guides

Looking for a Givenchy, a Loewe or a Berluti piece we do not yet show? Our Hunting Salon™ searches across Japan's private collector circles on your behalf.

Index terms: celine teddy jacket · celine triomphe · saint laurent biker jacket l01 · loewe anagram leather jacket · berluti scritto bomber · dior homme leather blouson · givenchy tisci archive · luxury menswear from japan · designer jacket sizing · house codes fashion