Word Play: How Lingerie Came to America - Literally
PHOTO: Bra in brown lace, adjustable straps, early 1970s Lou patrimony; panty girdle with detachable garters, flesh-colored stretch polyamide, early 1970s, Aubade patrimony; panty girdle with double abdominal support and insets in embroidered stain, detachable garters, white stretch polyamide, early 1970s, Barbara patrimony. Photographs by Gilles Berquet for Lingerie Française Exhibition XIX-XXI.
Back when your great great grandmother was wearing bloomers, American women flocked to France to buy lingerie. This was in the 1800s, when the word "lingerie" didn’t even exist in the American vernacular: We Anglo-Saxons incorporated it into the English language as a stand-in for frilly, naughty undergarments that were seemingly too sexy or sassy for our Puritan vocabulary back in the day. (Such is the destiny of many ooh-la-la French words in English.)
But, in fact, the word lingerie had long existed in French without any scandalous connotations. For starters, let’s break it down:
LINGERIE is comprised of two words:
1. Lin, which means linen and/or linens (as in sheets)
2. Linge, which means laundry. (Faire le linge means to "do your laundry." Nothing scandalous there.)
Thus, the French word lingerie refers to intimate apparel and undergarments of all kinds and not the come-hither seductive bras and teddies we Americans might conjure with the word. This is not to say that the French weren’t designing and producing some of the most gorgeous, sexy, and fabulously engineered lingerie back in the day. The French invented the corset, after all. In fact, by 1867 11 million corsets were sold in France. Yes, that’s 11 million.
The majority of these corsets were made by the founders of French brands that still exist: There was Dr. Bernard, who established the company that would become Aubade, inventor Louis Neyron, who founded a company that would become Maison Lejaby, and innovator Paul-Maurice Kretz, who had laid foundation for Chantelle.
When the corset began to divide in two in the early 1900s (hence, the birth of the bra), American women went to France for quality lingerie. Even Caresse Crosby, the American woman who received the first American bra patent at the time, drew her lingerie inspiration from France: Crosby led a literary and louche expat life in Paris for many years and coined the term "brassiere" from the French. (Crosby allegedly made her first bra with two silk handkerchiefs, pink ribbon, and cord.) The word “brassiere” later became a celebrity in the 1940s and 1950s with the advent of pin-ups, sweater girls, and the pointy cone-shaped bras that were the trademark of Hollywood stars like Jane Russell and Lana Turner.
As French fashion curator Catherine Ormen observed in her book "French Lingerie," it was Hollywood that put a true oo-la-la spin on the word lingerie by placing “the accent upon the voluptuousness of feminine curves, thus influencing the taste and the erotic aspirations of an entire generation of men and women." Adds Ormen: "In response to this craze, French lingerie came up new solutions: balcony bras, merry widows and basques, push-up bras, bras with the straps set far apart, with demi-basques, padded cushions, inverse under-wiring, ingenious and original designs whose purpose is to lift the bust and make the breasts point, to shape them into collie muzzle form, or simply to increase their volume while providing comfort, protection, and always a greater degree of seduction.”
Back when your great great grandmother was wearing bloomers, American women flocked to France to buy lingerie. This was in the 1800s, when the word "lingerie" didn’t even exist in the American vernacular: We Anglo-Saxons incorporated it into the English language as a stand-in for frilly, naughty undergarments that were seemingly too sexy or sassy for our Puritan vocabulary back in the day. (Such is the destiny of many ooh-la-la French words in English.)
But, in fact, the word lingerie had long existed in French without any scandalous connotations. For starters, let’s break it down:
LINGERIE is comprised of two words:
1. Lin, which means linen and/or linens (as in sheets)
2. Linge, which means laundry. (Faire le linge means to "do your laundry." Nothing scandalous there.)
Thus, the French word lingerie refers to intimate apparel and undergarments of all kinds and not the come-hither seductive bras and teddies we Americans might conjure with the word. This is not to say that the French weren’t designing and producing some of the most gorgeous, sexy, and fabulously engineered lingerie back in the day. The French invented the corset, after all. In fact, by 1867 11 million corsets were sold in France. Yes, that’s 11 million.
The majority of these corsets were made by the founders of French brands that still exist: There was Dr. Bernard, who established the company that would become Aubade, inventor Louis Neyron, who founded a company that would become Maison Lejaby, and innovator Paul-Maurice Kretz, who had laid foundation for Chantelle.
When the corset began to divide in two in the early 1900s (hence, the birth of the bra), American women went to France for quality lingerie. Even Caresse Crosby, the American woman who received the first American bra patent at the time, drew her lingerie inspiration from France: Crosby led a literary and louche expat life in Paris for many years and coined the term "brassiere" from the French. (Crosby allegedly made her first bra with two silk handkerchiefs, pink ribbon, and cord.) The word “brassiere” later became a celebrity in the 1940s and 1950s with the advent of pin-ups, sweater girls, and the pointy cone-shaped bras that were the trademark of Hollywood stars like Jane Russell and Lana Turner. As French fashion curator Catherine Ormen observed in her book "French Lingerie," it was Hollywood that put a true oo-la-la spin on the word lingerie by placing “the accent upon the voluptuousness of feminine curves, thus influencing the taste and the erotic aspirations of an entire generation of men and women." Adds Ormen: "In response to this craze, French lingerie came up new solutions: balcony bras, merry widows and basques, push-up bras, bras with the straps set far apart, with demi-basques, padded cushions, inverse under-wiring, ingenious and original designs whose purpose is to lift the bust and make the breasts point, to shape them into collie muzzle form, or simply to increase their volume while providing comfort, protection, and always a greater degree of seduction.”
In the end, lingerie – the word, the concept, the very product itself - is deeply rooted in France and thus will always be really, truly French, no matter how you slice it.
October 08, 2015
