As a way of preserving—while offering public access to—a collection of exceptionally rare regional artifacts, descendants of Maison Fragonard founder Eugène Fuchs recently commemorated the latest addition to the legendary perfume company’s constellation of boutique museums: the Musée de la Mode et du Costume in Arles.

“Collections-Collection,” the inaugural exhibition (which runs through January 4, 2026), is a celebration of garments worn in Provence from as early as the 18th century, and it marks the opening of the sixth company-affiliated museum owned and operated by the parfumerie in France.

The richly woven Fragonard story began nearly 100 years ago, in 1926, when Monsieur Fuchs ventured with his family into the heart of Provence to establish the fledgling enterprise that would become known around the globe as Maison Fragonard. Fuchs, the notary-turned-parfumeur, embraced with more than a soupçon of entrepreneurial persistence the seemingly limitless business opportunities available in and around the expansive lavender fields of Grasse, a picturesque town with a tradition of perfume-making stretching back to the 1700s and in modern times widely regarded as “the perfume capital of the world.”

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WRITTEN BY ROGER HARRIS

This story appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of MILIEU.