Story & heritage

Arpège launched in 1927 and is the most storied fragrance in Lanvin's history. Jeanne Lanvin created it to mark the thirtieth birthday of her daughter Marguerite — a musician — naming it for the arpeggio, the broken chord of a musical phrase. It carried the tagline 'Promise her anything, but give her Arpège,' and became the house's signature scent.

Its black spherical bottle, with the ribbed gold cap, bears the Lanvin mother-and-daughter logo drawn by Paul Iribe from a photograph of Jeanne and Marguerite at a 1907 costume ball — making the flacon itself a portrait of the dedication at the perfume's heart.

Materials & craft

Arpège is a floral-aldehyde composition, rich and powdery in the grand 1920s manner. The flacon is its signature: a black glass boule (sphere) topped by a gold godron cap — a ribbed form echoing the furniture in Lanvin's boutiques — with the gold mother-and-daughter logo applied to the front. The perfume is produced for Lanvin by Interparfums and presented in the matching black-and-gold box.

How to choose & style

Arpège is a classic evening and cooler-weather scent — full, powdery and long-lasting in the heritage register, so a light hand reads best. It is the most historic fragrance Lanvin offers, the one to choose for its lineage as much as its smell. The black-and-gold bottle has scarcely changed in decades and remains one of perfumery's most recognisable objects.