Hervé Léger was founded in 1985 by the designer Hervé Peugnet (1957–2017). The same year Karl Lagerfeld advised Peugnet that his surname Peugnet would be too difficult for Americans, the target market, to pronounce, and instead suggested the surname Léger.[2] Having lost the rights to the Hervé Léger name, Peugnet later took a third "brand" name as Hervé L.