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

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.

Photo: Mata Hari.

 

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

By Suzy Paterson

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.

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