It is much talked about, and much written about: Herminie CADOLLE invented the very first bra in Paris is 1889.

This women, a friend of the infamous Louise Michel, who had no particular inclination towards this trade, was first and foremost a business women. She was also very much an action women.

One day, she had the brilliant idea of liberating women from the constraints of the corset; she created the very first bra, which supported the breast by means of shoulder straps. Herminie Cadolle had decided to separate the traditional corset into two parts, the top part specifically designed to support the bosom (and called the "corselete-gorge"). Until then breasts were painfully crushed under a long, tight-laced whalebone corset. Herminie's new undergarment, held in place with laces in back and satin shoulder straps, was revolutionary. She displayed her invention in Paris at the Great Exposition of 1900 beneath Gustave Eiffel's recently completed tower. Lingerie has never been the same since. Every season, when designers show off their new collections, a couture sale is often followed by a call to Poupie Cadolle, Herminie's great-great-granddaughter. Her magical underpinnings are known to make a dress fit the way it should.

We shan't go deep into the story of this extraordinary women and her family here, it would take an entire book because Herminie was just the first in a long line of women where each one of her descendants contributed to what could well be called the CADOLLE SAGA.

For the record, Herminie was the first to encourage the weavers of Troyes to incorporate rubber in their threads: it was the era of discovery of the rubber tree. Elastic thread (at the time known as "rubber thread") would soon replace whalebone and lacing.

It should be noted, that it would be Herminie's great-great-grand-daughter who would one day instigate the return to this antiquated fashion.

Herminie worked hard to develop her business, and the awards reflected this success: medals from Saint-Petersburg in 1904, Chicago in 1906, Saint-Louis in 1907, Paris in 1910 etc...

In 1914 the First World War broke out, and radically changed the undergarment industry. Men went off to fight in the war, and the women were called upon to take charge of the factories. The corsets became extinct, and the bra became a must-have, a product for the new manual workers.

Marie CADOLLE, the daughter-in-law of Herminie, would continue her important work. The First World War had amongst it many other consequences, irreversibly changed the image of the female form.

Until that time, women's clothes served only one purpose-to be beautiful by accentuating the female form. After the war, clothing took on the role of CREATING the female form.

Haut Couture was born...

Marguerite, Marie's daughter-in law, saw the opportunity and seized it-she quickly accessed the advantages of the situation. Up until this point, the seamstress had built the dress for the women who would wear it, now it would be the women who would wear a dress that had been designed to represent a certain style.

Since dresses would no longer be shaped to fit the women, Marguerite CADOLLE decided that she would shape the body of the women to fit the dress; she invented and put into production elasticated materials for which purpose she opened an entire factory.

Low cut necklines, dress of extreme styles; through her creations, Marguerite would build a union between underwear and outerwear.

She had already created the flattening bra for Coco Channel. She created bras in fine silk which were embroidered entirely by hand for the Duchess of Windsor.

Things had really come a long way since the ribbon and strap bras that Herminie made for the infamous spy Mata Hari. She went regularly to Mata Hari's suite at the Ritz. In this privacy Mata Hari would remove the live boas she wore around her neck like amulets and permit Marguerite to take her measurements. Another noted client, Wallis Simpson was "a terrible client, in fact the only one we refused eventually". Annie Giardot is a customer. Moreau is a regular.

When Marguerite died in 1933, at the age of 43, she left the business to her daughter Alice, a woman as energetic and creative as her mother. Even during the German Occupation of France, Alice continued to make beautiful lingerie using curtains for materials, Scarlett O'Hara style, when there was no lace to be had.

But, the name CADOLLE remained, much to the pleasure of it's regular clients, synonymous with rare luxury.

Alice CADOLLE would maintain this reputation as of 1933. The reputation of the company amongst the most elegant women in the world would know no bounds.

Many awards celebrate the loyalty of the company to it's high standards. Alice won the most prestigious award of fashion in the United States in 1949, just two years after Christian DIOR, the Neiman Marcus Award.

These days, crowned heads have been replaced little by little by wives of businessmen or oil barons. The princesses of the Middle-East have replaced Russian Archduchesses. Film stars have replaced the stars of the opera. The Cadolle client list is as closely guarded as a queen's true measurements. But a pregnant Barbara Hutton used to fly the staff to her London hotel each month for one of each in every color. Christina Onassis got all her bathing suits from CADOLLE. Catherine Deneuve and Brigitte Bardot must call ahead like everyone else.

Too discreet to name more of her famous clients, Madame CADOLLE divulges that among them figure three queens ("and après tout, how many queens are there today?"). She offers a tattered black slip, full of holes, which a French duchess wants copied. "Voil´ comme les riches sont", she explains holding up the garment, which looks like it's been taken from a trash can. She is one of the richest women in France, and look what she sends me. But, alas she is a duchess." Later Poupie fishes out the underwear of an English aristocrat who has her crest embroidered on each individual piece-even her garter belts. But her best client in recent years, she admits, is neither English nor French, but a "favorite" of one of the Saudi sheiks. She orders twelve sets of everything, explaining, "I have twelve houses and I never carry a suitcase."

"The corset is coming back into style," Madame Cadolle affirms. "Men love their women in them." And men are among her most loyal clients. But they love black."

Today, CADOLLE lingerie is still synonymous with luxury, discretion and the perfect fit. Each garment is custome-made and hand-finished, exclusively in France, with a price that reflects the 12-30 hours of labor that make it a CADOLLE.