Lanvin

Lanvin is a French luxury house founded in Paris by Jeanne Lanvin, one of the oldest French couture houses still in operation [1]. It began in 1889 as a milliner's shop and grew into a couture house whose fragrance line — built around the 1927 perfume Arpège — remains its most enduring contribution to the beauty world. Today the house and its scents are run by two separate companies: the fashion house belongs to Lanvin Group, part of China's Fosun International, while the fragrances are operated worldwide by Interparfums. Both remain active.

The founding date depends on which Lanvin one means. The brand and Wikipedia date the house to 1889, when Jeanne Lanvin opened her hat shop [2][4]; the fashion reference Encyclopedia.com instead dates the couture house to 1909, the year she joined the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, and calls Lanvin "the oldest surviving couture house in continuous existence, from 1909 to 1993" [6].

Jeanne Lanvin was born in Paris on 1 January 1867, the eldest of a modest family of eleven children. She began working for a milliner on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré at thirteen, and at twenty-two opened her own shop, with creations labelled "Lanvin (Mademoiselle Jeanne) Modes." According to the house, she founded the business in 1889 with a small hat shop at 16 Rue Boissy d'Anglas, taking a lease on the more prestigious Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré four years later.

The turning point was the birth of her daughter Marguerite in 1897. Marguerite became, in the brand's words, her muse, inspiring a children's clothing line that sold well and led Lanvin to open a children's department in 1908. The relationship also gave the house its emblem: a drawing of a mother and child, created by the Art Deco illustrator Paul Iribe.

Lanvin's move from milliner to couturier is marked by her 1909 membership in the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, the Parisian fashion council, when she opened a women's department [6]. She became known for a deep shade she called "Lanvin blue," which she said was inspired by the fifteenth-century frescoes of Fra Angelico, and for Art Deco–influenced designs. In 1926 the house became the first Parisian couturier to launch a made-to-measure line for men.

The fragrance chapter opened in 1924, when Lanvin Perfumes was established at 4 Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées [2][4]. Arpège, the house's signature scent, followed in 1927, created by the perfumer André Fraysse as a gift for Marguerite's thirtieth birthday and built on Bulgarian rose, Grasse jasmine, honeysuckle and lily of the valley. Jeanne Lanvin also introduced My Sin in 1925 and, in 1933, L'eau de Lanvin, described as the first "eau mixte" for both men and women.

Jeanne Lanvin died on 6 July 1946 at the age of seventy-nine. Her daughter, by then Marie-Blanche, succeeded her as president and designed collections into the following years. In September 2024 Peter Copping was appointed the fashion house's artistic director.

The Lanvin name is split between two owners along the line that separates fashion from fragrance. The perfume business was sold in 2007 to Interparfums; according to Wikipedia, Inter Parfums SA acquired the worldwide rights to the Lanvin brand names and the Class 3 trademarks that cover perfumery and cosmetics [4][7]. The fashion house took a different path: Shanghai-based Fosun International became the owner of Lanvin in February 2018, and the business now sits within Lanvin Group [4].

Within Interparfums' fragrance portfolio, Lanvin appears alongside other licensed and owned houses including Rochas, Lacoste Fragrance, Goutal Paris, Guess and Hollister. On the fashion side, Lanvin Group was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2023 [4].

Interparfums presents the fragrances as carrying forward the couture house's heritage, describing them as sharing "the timeless chic of Jeanne Lanvin's Couture, enhanced with ultra-contemporary creativity" [1]. The company frames the house's codes — Lanvin blue, the bow, the daisy and the mother-and-child logo — as design signatures in their own right, and characterises the style as delicate, poetic and understated. Encyclopedia.com records the kind of customer the couture house cultivated: women who, it writes, "typically began their association with the house as debutantes and maintained their loyalty through their weddings, motherhood, and widowhood."

Arpège is the centre of the fragrance line. The Perfume Society profiles it as among the first "designer" fragrances and describes its bottle — a black-glass sphere with a narrow neck and a gold motif by Paul Iribe — as having become an icon [5]. The contemporary range extends the name through Éclat d'Arpège and a set of feminine and floral scents, including the Les Fleurs de Lanvin collection (Sunny Magnolia, Water Lily, Blue Orchid), the Jeanne Lanvin and Modern Princess lines, and the men's fragrance Lanvin L'Homme.

Lanvin's standing rests partly on its longevity: Encyclopedia.com describes it as the oldest surviving couture house in continuous existence between 1909 and 1993 [6]. The name has also surfaced in wider culture — Wikipedia notes that Michelle Obama wore Lanvin sneakers in 2009, drawing considerable media attention [4].

Lanvin is active on both fronts. The fashion house, owned by Lanvin Group under Fosun International, appointed a new artistic director in September 2024, while the fragrance line is marketed worldwide by Interparfums with continuing releases such as Éclat d'Arpège and Lanvin L'Homme. It remains one of the oldest continuously operating French houses.