jeanie lanvin

www.lanvin.com

Jeanne Lanvin

Jeanne-Marie Lanvin is a French fashion designer who was born on January 1, 1867 in Paris. As the eldest of 11 children she had to leave the family house and became an apprentice milliner at Madame Felix in Paris. She was trained at dressmaker Talbot. In 1889 she started working as a milliner at 22 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. She married Henri-Emile-Georges di Pietro and had a daughter, Marguerite who later became a talented opera-singer.
Jeanne Lanvin is famous for her mother-and-daughter garment as well as her global and modern attitude to the fashion. She made impressive children` s clothing what caught an eye of well-to-do society. The dress maker soon designed not only for the children but also for their prominent mothers. The boutique became well-known all over the Europe. Lanvin joined the Syndicat de la Couture in 1909 and she was officially being called a couturiere.
She divorced Pietro in 1903. Her second husband` s name was Xavier Melet whom she married four years later. He worked as a journalist and later was appointed the French consul in Manchester.
The Lanvin Company expanded and it involved a dye factory in Nanterre from 1923. In the 1920s numerous shops were opened aimed at men` s wear, home decor, furs,and lingerie. To establish Lanvin Parfums SA in 1924 was the most successful marketing tactics. Inspired during her daughter` s piano lessons, the debut perfume by Jeanne Lanvin was called Arp?ge (1927).
Albert-Armand Rateau was commissioned to beautify her house at 16 rue Barbet-de-Jouy in Paris. He decorated her residence at Vesinet as well. In 1985 the living, the boudoir and the bathroom were displayed in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. The artist managed Lanvin-Sport line and designed the Lanvin sphere-shaped La Boule fragrance flacon for Arp?ge. He was commissioned to design Lanvin` s fashion house; moreover, as a manager of the Lanvin-Decoration department of interior designs, he held an important position in the fashion house.
The skilled designer used gorgeous embroideries, beaded decorations, and light, floral colours. These techniques made her famous; because of them she is supposed to be the most impressive fashion designer of the1920s and the 1930s.
When the talented dressmaker died in 1946 Lavin` s daughter Marie-Blanche was her successor. She had shared the management with her cousin before. Marie-Blanche died in 1958 so Yves Lanvin continued running the company.
In 1989 the British Midland Bank bought a stake in the Lanvin Company. Soon after the bank sold Lanvin to the French holding company, Orcofi which was led by the Vuittons. In 1994 50% of the company was bought by L`Oreal, they acquired 66% a year later. In 1996 Lanvin Company was the propriety of L` Oreal.
In 2006 the oldest fashion house Lanvin was acquired by investor group Harmonie S.A. led by a Taiwanese magnate Shaw-Lan Wang. Albert Elbaz became an artistic director the same year.