Arpege(1927)

Created by Andre Fraysse for Lanvin, Arpege opens on aldehydes, bergamot, and peach, moves through a heart of rose, jasmine, lily of the valley, and ylang-ylang, and closes on vanilla, sandalwood, and musk. Its name, meaning arpeggio, the musical technique of playing a chord's notes in sequence rather than simultaneously, was reportedly suggested by Jeanne Lanvin's daughter Marguerite upon smelling the fragrance, comparing its unfolding character to notes cascading rather than striking all at once. The fragrance's iconic black spherical bottle, designed by Armand-Albert Rateau, remains one of the most recognized packaging designs in perfumery history, its gold silhouette depicting Jeanne Lanvin and her daughter drawn from a photograph of the pair. Arpege's densely layered aldehydic-floral structure, following the template Chanel No. 5 had established six years earlier, is frequently ranked among the finest expressions of that genre alongside No. 5 itself. It remains Lanvin's flagship fragrance a century later, continuously produced and regularly cited as one of the defining aldehydic florals of the golden age of French perfumery.