Along with Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli , she towered high for decades as one of the pillars of French fashion . Now iconic designer Jeanne Lanvin , who died in 1946 , will be honoured in a new exhibition opening this week at the Paris City Fashion museum at the Palais Galliera . The show will be inaugurated by Paris ' Mayor Anne Hidalgo and celebrates Lanvin being the oldest fashion house still operating in France , now under the creative direction of Alber Elbaz . Dresses by Jeanne Lanvin featured in the new exhibition opening this week at the Paris City Fashion museum at the Palais Galliera reveal her love of vibrant colours . Lanvin opened her bridal department in 1909 and her gowns became popular with prestigious customers who favoured her designs , pictured , using ivory silk chiffon embroidered with pearls and gold metallic threads . Lanvin , pictured in Paris in 1938 , used travel diaries , swatches of ethnic fabrics and a vast library of art books to feed her curiosity and inspire her to create different patterns and designs . It 's a rich legacy has spanned the 19th , 20th and 21st centuries and the new exhibition charts the rise of the company founded by Lanvin after she opened her first store in 1889 . The designer was born in Paris in 1867 and after training to be a dressmaker , she then became a milliner with dreams of opening her own fashion house . After she made her dream a reality , she was a pioneering working mother as she established her business whilst caring for daughter , Marguerite . The displays in the new exhibition , which will run till 23 August , reveal her love of colour and the Asian influences seen in her embroidery and decorative work . 'My Fair Lady ' from 1939 features a large bias-cut ribbon that stands out against the white fabric of the dress . An absinthe green silk satin dress from the twenties , embroidered with glass beads and Swarovski crystals . There are more than one hundred pieces in the exhibition that reveals how Lanvin 's rich legacy has spanned the 19th , 20th and 21st centuries . It will feature more than a hundred exhibits from the collections of the Palais Galliera and the Lanvin Heritage , revealing how Lanvin could lend her creative talent to children 's clothes , bridal wear and accessories . In 1927 , she celebrated her daughter Marguerite 's thirtieth birthday with the creation of the legendary perfume Arpège . The famous logo designed by Paul Iribe , depicting the couturière with Marguerite , is displayed on the round bottle created by Armand Rateau . The same logo is still featured on Lanvin creations to this day . Lanvin used travel diaries , swatches of ethnic fabrics and a vast library of art books to feed her curiosity and inspire her to create fabrics , patterns and exclusive colours - with her favourite shade a blue that become known as Lanvin blue . A attendee admires the My Fair Lady gown that was inspired by French 18th century-style dresses . By the thirties , Lanvin was championing high waisted dresses with belts like this one for a smart , tailored but still feminine look . Her styles helped set the trends across the decades from ample skirts in the early 20th century to Art Deco designs in the twenties . Nadja Swarovski , member of the Swarovski executive board who are supporting the exhibition , said : 'We are honoured to partner with the Palais Galliera in supporting the first retrospective dedicated to Jeanne Lanvin , one of the greatest figures of Parisian haute couture . 'Swarovski was founded in 1895 , just six years after Mme Lanvin established her house , and she used crystals to adorn the luxuriously embellished evening gowns which became her trademark . 'This inspiring exhibition pays tribute to the skill , inventiveness and creativity of a great artist who captured and expressed the spirit of her time , and celebrates over 125 years of extraordinary fashion heritage which continues to thrive under Alber Elbaz . ' Lanvin had a taste for black and white designs with geometrical effects - a trend which dominated the thirties . The exhibition will be open until 23 August and Lanvin 's current creative director Alber Elbaz hopes people will come away saying '' I love Jeanne Lanvin '' Elbaz himself commented : 'For this exhibition , we began to look at the clothes , the dresses , the inside of the dresses , and the feelings that we picked up from them . The whole question was to work out how to display them . 'For many years I 've worked on the windows of our boutiques , and I love doing it . But doing an exhibition in a museum is a different kind of undertaking , because it involves a different vocabulary . 'Never having done an exhibition , I wanted to learn all I could from Olivier Saillard and his team . We had two options : either to be historical and do a very academic retrospective with a succession of dates ; or to follow our feelings , to love and admire the clothes , touch the visitors ’ heart through the sheer beauty of these garments , and finish the exhibition kind of up on a cloud . ' I think we have managed to create an exhibition around the dream of fashion . What I am hoping for is to hear the visitors say `` I love Jeanne Lanvin '' . '
Jeanne Lanvin , who died in 1946 , will be featured in a new exhibition . Opens this week at the Paris City Fashion gallery at the hotel Galliera . shows how fashion photography has spanned three centuries .