Lanvin

Jeanne Lanvin began as a milliner and built an empire on dressing her daughter Marguerite — the embrace on the house logo is the two of them — expanding into couture, menswear, interiors, and the perfume Arpège, whose bottle still carries that emblem. Her robe de style offered an alternative to the flapper shift, and her particular blue, mixed to match a Fra Angelico fresco, remains a house code.

The modern era’s high point was Alber Elbaz’s beloved 2001–2015 tenure — draped jewel-toned cocktail dresses, grosgrain and exposed zips — a benchmark every successor has been measured against. Now the flagship of the Shanghai-listed Lanvin Group, the house has handed Copping, a designer prized for polished, romantic femininity, the task of giving fashion’s oldest surviving couture name its next chapter.