Jeanne Lanvin

Jeanne Lanvin

Jeanne-Marie Lanvin (French: [ʒɑ̃ maʁi lɑ̃vɛ̃]; 1 January 1867 – 6 July 1946) was a French fashion designer. She founded the Lanvin fashion house and the perfume company Lanvin Parfums

In 1909, Lanvin joined the Syndicat de la Couture, which marked her formal status as a couturière. The clothing Lanvin made for her daughter began to attract the attention of a number of wealthy people who requested copies for their own children. Soon, Lanvin was making dresses for their mothers, and some of the most famous names in Europe were included in the clientele of her new boutique on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris.

From 1923, the Lanvin empire included a dye factory in Nanterre. In the 1920s, Lanvin opened shops devoted to home décor, menswear, furs and lingerie.

However, her most significant expansion was the creation of Lanvin Parfums SA in 1924 and the introduction of her signature, fragrance Arpège, in 1927, inspired by the sound of her daughter Marguerite's practicing her scales on the piano. ("Arpège" is French for arpeggio.)

In 1922, Lanvin collaborated with celebrated French designer Armand-Albert Rateau in redesigning her apartment, her homes and her businesses.(The living room, boudoir and bathroom of the apartment was reassembled in 1985 in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.) For this domicile, Rateau designed some remarkable 1920–22 furniture in bronze. The pair developed a friendship, and Rateau came aboard Lanvin's empire as manager of Lanvin-Sport, also designing the Lanvin spherical La Boule perfume flacon for Arpège (originally produced by the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres). To this day, Arpège perfume containers are imprinted with Paul Iribe's gold image (rendered in 1907) of Lanvin and her daughter Marguerite. Rateau also managed Lanvin-Décoration (an interior-design department, established 1920) in the main store on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré

Another female fashion designer whose house remains as relevant today as when she founded it is Jeanne Lanvin. Trained as a milliner and dressmaker, Lanvin began making clothes for her daughter that were so beautiful, a number of wealthy people began requesting copies for their own children, and the designer happily obliged. Lanvin was born--as a childrens wear label. Soon, though, mothers began requesting similar designs that they themselves could wear, and within years the business had grown to include womenswear, perfume and home design, making Lanvin the first designer to see the potential of a lifestyle brand.