WOMEN OF GREATNESS

New York Monthly Herald. June 2006 Issue P. 35 CONTINUES ON P36

EVE WORLD: WOMEN OF GREATNESS

Herminie Cadolle, Inventor of the Modern Bra (1845-1926)

Photo: Mata Hari.

Inventor of the modern bra and founder of the Cadolle lingerie house. Herminie was a close friend of the French Insurrectionist Louise Michel, and it was this connection that lead her to leave for the saftey of Buenos Aires. Here, in 1887, Herminie opened a shop selling made to measure underwear. Returning to Paris in 1889, she opened a similar lingerie workshop on the street Chaussee d'Antin, where she invented a two-piece undergarment called le bien-être (the wellbeing). The lower part was a corset for the waist, the upper supporting the breasts by means of shoulder straps. She exhibited at the Great Exposition in 1900, and by 1905 the upper half was being sold separately as a soutien-gorge (breast support), the name by which bras are still known in France. Herminie became a fitter of bras to queens, princesses, dancers and actresses Mata Hari. was among her customers. She was also first to use cloth incorporating rubber (elastic) thread.

"Women confide their wish to be sexy," says Poupie

Chanel dictated the boyish look, and women were binding up their breasts.
Remember the curvy, lacy Naughty Nineties of yore? The busty, lusty lingerie that came out the closet for Toulouse-Lautrec? It's still with us, especially at Paris' only and oldest haute-couture lingerie house, Cadolle, whose founder invented the bra. Headmistress now is Poupie Cadolle. Victoria's Secret has nothing on her, and nobody knows better than Poupie how some women yearn for those curves, whether to be worn as bustiers at a debutante ball or under outfits to give sexy allure. "Women confide their wish to be sexy," says Poupie, who has measured thousands of busts, waists and hips. As great-great granddaughter of Herminie Cadolle, who put out the first bra in 1889, she heads Paris's top lingerie house, which has endured as long as another great construction, the Eiffel Tower. The movies have capitalized on the hourglass, memorably with the siren curves of such icons as Brigitte Bardot, Marlene Dietrich or Jane Russell. Despite a preoccupation with the thin and the flat, this classic shape of femininity never quite dies out in fashion. The house of Cadolle is still known as the world's "premier corsetier," furnishing underpinnings to royalty, film stars and the really rich, who pay up to $400 for a couture made-to-order bra. Customers walk into an old-fashioned shop on rue Cambon just off Faubourg St. Honore into an atmosphere like some quiet London bespoke tailor's shop. Only this one is full of titillating, lacy, feathery stuff. Cadolle will furnish lacy hand-sewn nighties, plain or lacy silk panties or something more fetching, like a custom-made thong or G-string style. "Though I rather disapprove of the latter," says Ms. Cadolle, an ebullient blonde of generous proportions who knows most of her clients, keeps tabs on her sewing staff and has all her own lingerie made in the shop.

Design by Suzy Paterson.

But she's seriously pushing the bustier-corsets as evening wear, and says they love them down in Dallas (Neiman Marcus), sometimes in New York (Bergdorf Goodman) and especially out in Hollywood, "where everything is glamour. They adore being sexy out there." Whaleboned a la l8th century, with lashings of ruching and lace, fullish silk skirts underneath, Ms. Cadolle's corsets made by nimble fingers in her Rue Cambon shop shine as gala evening wear for those who want to look sexy.

"French men and women aren't embarrassed, and the women love things like dainty garter belts -- which the men adore, too. "They're comfortable," she insists. "The boning is made to follow the anatomy naturally, and we leave plenty of room to breathe. It's like an instant figure fix, and I think women are paying more attention to a small waist these days." For Ms. Cadolle, construction and good fabrics mean everything -- even as they did for her ancestor some 100-plus years ago. "The bosom was neglected in favor of just waist-pinchers," says Poupie. "Construction started with Herminie, but her bra concept of support didn't really have much success until after she died in 1925." Herminie had emigrated with her family to Argentina, made a killing with dainty couture French little nothings, and came back to Paris later to work out of a small shop she had kept here. "She was finally a rival of Chanel's up the street," says Poupie. " Chanel dictated the boyish look, and women were binding up their breasts. Quelle horreur!" But Ms. Cadolle admits that even her grandmother, Marguerite (by then in charge in this matriarchy, all called Cadolle) had to sell the flattening devices to fit the flapper fashion. Marguerite was a dynamo who kept the business flourishing by providing lingerie for clients like Mata Hari, the famous spy who supposedly removed live boas she wore as jewelry to be measured for her bras. "I can't verify that story," says Poupie, "but I think she did have secret pockets in her bras." Poupie's mother, Alice, presided over underpinnings for the wasp-waisted New Look after World War II -- a bonanza for the corset makers. "And my maman is still very chic," says the daughter, "though she's retired, and doesn't usually wear a corset any more." Poupie is happy to see so much underwear coming out of the closet and clients still coming into the rather pokey little Paris shop. She has plenty of sociological observations: "French men and women aren't embarrassed, and the women love things like dainty garter belts -- which the men adore, too. "Americans have loosened up a bit, but the women still aren't much interested in garter belts and seem to want seamless bras made on molds, which I simply won't sell. They don't give any support."

The Japanese are important new customers, "but they have a different kind of prudery. Men and women never come in as couples, only in one-sex groups." There is apparently a lot of ogling and pawing of merchandise. She thinks the women love corsets, since the Japanese figure is not notably curvy. "But for some reason, they hate transparency, even tulle. I'll have to find out why that is. They all just giggle like mad -- even sophisticated movie stars -- if they see transparency." And she is ecstatic about her new market in the U.S. West and Southwest. "The East is a little more prudish," she says. "They don't take as much pleasure in pretty lingerie." "But out there in Hollywood, they keep fit and are screaming with delight at sexy underwear." She keeps her present famous clients a secret, except for Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks's wife: "She told Women's Wear Daily her clothes look so great on her because of our lingerie underpinnings. That makes me feel very happy, to be recognized as part of the fashion scene!" CONTINUES ON P36