A mother, a daughter, a fragrance, and an arpeggio is all it takes to engrave the “Age of Reason” into eternity. For her daughter Marguerite’s 30th birthday, Jeanne Lanvin wanted to offer something extra special. The year was 1927. One year earlier, Jeanne Lanvin was granted the prestigious French “Légion d’Honneur” distinction to reward her outstanding work.
She wanted to do something else; something more. She wanted to create a flower who’s scent had never before been smelled. To surpass Nature itself with her outstanding new fragrance. To finally know what perfection smells like, with help from renowned perfumers André Fraysse and Paul Vacher. Sixty floral essences including iris, jasmine, rose, and neroli compose the opening notes, combined with aldehyde and finally layered with hints of amber and vanilla.
The instant Marguerite got a whiff of it, she proclaimed “It smells like an arpeggio!” And so the legend was born. Arpège is a non-stop explosion of the senses. French author Colette, a friend of Jeanne’s, called it “impeccably modern.”.Another of Lanvin’s contemporaries, author/femme fatale Louise de Vilmorin fancied it “a musical perfume that softly sings a happy song, a refined luxury, a miracle of elegance.”
Under the auspices of French interior designer and architect Armand-Albert Rateau, this legend would eventually take the form of a black sphere adorned with a simple light-yellow design. This design, depicting a mother reaching down affectively towards her daughter, would become the design house’s insignia. The finishing touch? A gold fluted bottle stopper to cap off the finished product, called “Arpège”.
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