The distinctive black bottle sitting on a dresser in Leigh’s bedroom is Lanvin’s iconic boule noire containing Arpége, a floral aldehyde fragrance created by Paul Vacher and Andre Fraysse and launched in 1927.
The advert above dates back to 1978, the year in which the film was released, and shows exactly the bottle seen in the film.
The hairbrush on her dresser is by Mason Pearson.
Thanks to Amy in the comments for the hairbrush id.
Diana Barrie (Maggie Smith) is a British actress who is in Los Angeles after getting her first Oscar nomination. While she’s sitting in her in-suite bathroom at the Beverly Hills Hotel, we can see several toiletries on the pink marble counters around her.
The yellow stick on her right is Jean Naté cologne stick.
On her left there’s the iconic boule noire of Lanvin Arpège, created by Paul Vacher and Andre Fraysse and launched in 1927.
Thanks to LePetitCivet for submitting this post.
Actor Hrundi V. Bakshi (Peter Sellers) is the epitome of clumsiness. After inadvertently blowing up a fort on a film set, he’s about to be blacklisted by the studio head, General Fred R. Clutterbuck, but for a twist of fate he gets an invitation for an exclusive dinner party at the Clutterbucks. Needless to say, he causes trouble in every single room he visits.
This is the second bathroom he visits in the lavish mansion: there’s a small dressing table in it, so it’s probably used mostly by Alice, the general’s wife. On one shelf hanging on the wall we can see a houndstooth bottle by Christian Dior. The front label is impossible to read, so we can make some guesses: it could be Miss Dior (created by Paul Vacher and Jean Carles in 1947), Diorissimo (created by Edmond Roudnitska and launched in 1956), Diorama (another Roudnitska creation from 1948) or even Diorling (a chypre creation by Paul Vacher launched in 1963).
On the dressing table on the right there’s Lanvin Arpège in the classic boule noire bottle.
Marion Steiner is a strong woman: she’s the owner and leading actress of the Théâtre Montmartre in Paris during WWII. She’s also exceptionally beautiful and elegant, despite the harsh living and working conditions of that historical period. Still, it’s quite surprising to see an incredible array of Lanvin Arpège [1] products on her dressing table. This choice is historically accurate: the Lanvin perfume, created by Paul Vacher and Andre Fraysse, was launched in 1927.
Starting from the left, there’s a tall faceted bottle of Eau de Lanvin Arpège.
Next, two small bottles with square stopper of Arpège.
The only non-Lanvin product is Caron Narcisse Noir in the original bottle with engraved black stopper.
The black rectangular half-open box contains Lanvin Arpège soap. The packaging of the box seen in the movie is slightly different from the one above, though: the box in the movie has faceted – not rounded – edges.
The round box contains Arpège dusting powder.
Last, Arpège in the classic boule noire with ribbed stopper.
The same objects appear in a scene where Marion (Catherine Deneuve) is sitting at her vanity. In this case, another bottle of Eau de Lanvin Arpège can be seen in front of the mirror.
[1] Other Lanvin perfumes were launched before 1942 (year in which the film takes place) – Mon Péché in 1924, Scandal in 1931, Rumeur in 1934, Pretexte in 1937. The same bottles were used for most of them, so those seen on Marion’s table could contain one of them and not Arpège. Arpège was the most popular, though, so I guess it was easier to find in war times.
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