Our story
From generation to generation, the daughters of the same family will successively invent a new way of dressing, define the rules and make them evolve according to the times they have been through, always giving them the same special touch that makes the reputation of the House. An essential meeting point in Paris for two centuries and coming from all over the world, the most refined and famous women are constantly meeting in our salons.
1889
INVENTION OF THE BRA
Herminie Cadolle, after having taken part with Louise Michel in the revolutionary events of the Commune of Paris, emigrated with all her family in Argentina. She founded there the first "Cadolle house" and quickly made a fortune before returning to France to found another establishment, rue de la Chaussée d'Antin. It was during the World Fair of 1889 (the one for which the Eiffel Tower was built) that Herminie Cadolle exposed her new invention: she had just had a brilliant idea: for the comfort of the woman, she had cut in two the traditional female corset: she had invented the first bra for which she filed a patent and she called the "corselet-gorge". The extraordinary life of this revolutionary woman throughout the world is recounted in a book on the Saga Cadolle.
1911
THE RUE CAMBON
Marie Cadolle decided at that time to leave the premises of the street of the Chaussée d’Antin and the district of the Parisian department stores to settle street CAMBON; other fashion designers, who will become famous, will participate in this movement and create at this address a uveau Parisian pole of fashion and elegance Nowadays, the Cadolle house is still an institution.
1921
SUZANNE LENGLEN
Marguerite Cadolle is very friendly with a famous tennis player of the time: Suzanne Lenglen; they sign together several advertising campaigns for the line of Cadolle perfumes. Always innovative, the Maison Cadolle launches the first co-branding with a woman belonging to the world of sport.
1925
THE BOYISH FORM, FOR COCO CHANEL
Marguerite created that year the first flattening bra: the famous boyish form. Then, for the Duchess of Windsor and also for many other famous women of that time so tormented in Europe, she creates refined collections of lingerie: vertiginous necklines, molded dresses to the extreme ...: by her abundant creations she will create the first link between the craft of corsetry and Couture: the "Cadolle touch" was born.
1947
THE CORSET FOR MARCEL ROCHAS
Alice Cadolle develops with Monsieur
Rochas a new waspie,
and gives him the name of the couturier.
Inspired by the thin waist of a wasp,
a new silhouette of the body
of the woman is created with the "corset".
We were now far from bra in ribbons,
ticking and made of metal manufactured
by Herminie for the famous spy Mata Harie
1949
THE NEIMAN MARCUS AWARD
Multiple distinctions
will crown the abundant creations
of the Maison Cadolle
during this postwar period.
In 1949, two years after Mr Christian DIOR,
Alice Cadolle will obtain the most
famous world distinction of the professions
of the fashion of that time:
the Neiman Marcus trophy, in the United States.
1989
THE RETURN OF THE CORSET
At a trade show in Paris, Poupie Cadolle launches a new type of corset. The use of new modern materials combined with a new definition of the feminine silhouette transforms the old corset into a real garment of comfort and no longer of constraint; women get immediately enamoured with this new clothing they had forgotten for 80 years; almost immediately the corset makes its return in the collections of the Parisian Haute Couture and settles in the wardrobes of the stars and fashionatas; the corset emancipates from its original image and reinvents itself as a glamorous piece, a symbol of the refinement it has always represented.
The 20's
THE CADOLLE TOUCH
Alongside the cult lines, which are still scrupulously followed and updated, lines that are more seductive are now added. Expression and affirmation of a woman in keeping with the spirit of her time, the Geisha line is a turning point in the often discreet and elitic history of the House: it reveals a seductive woman and resolutely carrying out herself as such, with the imprint of the famous "Cadolle touch".
