As far as I can tell Chalet is a product of House Industries - see their page at http://www.houseindustries.com/index.php?page=showfont&id=140 - in a wide variety of styles, according to a House Industries catalog “...ten typefaces in three unique styles is the creative genius of acclaimed clothing designer Rene Albert Chalet.”

Jordan

>Rene Albert Chalet

They just made this designer up. He doesn’t actually exist! This whole marketing angle is one of the coolest things about Chalet, in my opinion.

Chalet’s design is pure House, not a revival or digtization of any specific source.

That’s facsinating, I have just linked onto the Speak Up page about the hoax.

Thanks for that.

R.

>They just made this designer up.

Dan, Judge Alito’s wife has just signed out of typophile in tears!

At the time I know the hoax fooled our Intern, which was quite funny. But I can’t imagine any of the typophile regulars would have been fooled. Or were they? And would they admit to it?

Of course not. Ehm.

ƒ

You obviously haven’t looked closely at the silhouettes. They tell the story of his life.
Honest

I’ve always been irritated by the naming convention used in Chalet. Instead of defining the weights/styles by a more rational method, they’ve used seemingly arbitrary descriptors like “London 1980” or “New York 1960.” I can never remember which one is which.

But I can’t imagine any of the typophile regulars would have been fooled. Or were they? And would they admit to it?

I admit it. I was fooled at first, which I hope says more about my knowledge of fashion designers than my knowledge of type. I suspect Jean-François is still laughing at me. He sent me a sample and asked me what I thought of this Chalet guy’s work. Well, what I thought was that he had ripped off Helvetica for his entire 1960 line.

Um, ok, I believed that this guy Rene Albert Chalet existed. Don’t believe everything you read in print I guess. I didn’t think to check the name, and while the history of art was a part of my curriculum at school, fashion designers didn’t figure in much. Oh I confess I’m so gullible. But a chalet is a place where you stay in the mountains on ski holidays, isn’t it?
Jordan the gullible

You guys just burst my bubble. Guess JFP has someone new to laugh at... Why would I have any reason to look elsewhere to see if Chalet was a real dude? House... shame on your sham... I suppose now you’re going to tell me that John Downer isn’t really a romance novel cover model (See House’s marketing forPaperback.)