The Maison Cadolle

Herminie Cadolle, who’d resided in Paris with her husband since 1860, was a corset manufacturer in one of the workshops that was then the backbone of Parisian fashion. During the Paris Commune of 1871, she participated in one of the first movements that claimed to be feminist: the Union of Women for the Defense of Paris and Care for the Wounded. Close to Louise Michel and heavily engaged in the effort, she was arrested and imprisoned in Rouen. Liberated six months later, she would leave Paris for Argentina. Thanks to her mastery and savoir-faire in corsetry, she opened a lingerie workshop and brought the bodice bra or “well-being” maintien-gorge into being. Indeed, Madame Cadolle cut the corset into two, rendering it less rigid with elastic thread, two straps, and an armature. It was one of the direct precursors to the modern bra; she even presented it at the Universal Expo in Paris in 1889 after patenting it.

From that day onward, Herminie Cadolle would make a fortune in lingerie by never ceasing to confront creativity and innovations, for example, with her use of “elastic rubber thread”. She would definitively come back to France in 1910 and open a workshop followed by a boutique that she entrusted to her stepdaughter Marie. Exported around the world, she was one of the first to sell via catalogue. In the early 20th century, she was already employing more than 200 workers to manufacture lingerie for London, New York, or Saint Petersburg. After the First World War, Herminie would pass the torch to the next generation. The Maison Cadolle would create custom undergarments for the Duchess of Windsor, notorious spy Mata Hari, and many other personalities. The label collaborated with the likes of Chanel and Paul Poiret as well. During the interwar years came the golden age of the boyish form trend, flattening the chest for an androgynous silhouette as glorified by Coco herself.

It’s in Saint-Cloud that Herminie Cadolle passed away in 1924, at the age of 82. Her brand left a long history behind her. Today it still perpetuates her one-of-a-kind savoir-faire for a demanding, international, and ultra-refined clientele that includes a number of artists and, only naturally, stage costumers.