EmpreinteFor some – namely the French – the question is rhetorical: Did the French invent love? Of course they did, at least if you consider how long they've been waxing poetic on the subject and its many shades of, well, red. (The prose of eighteenth century Marquis de Sade alone is enough to make “Fifty Shades of Grey” read like a Girl Scout manual.) For close to one thousand years, in fact, the French have been romancing as many shades of grey as there are cheeses.  

 Six centuries before the identity of Saint Valentine (presumably Roman, but never mind) was associated with love, the French put courtly love on the cultural map. Back in the eleventh century, troubadours like the Duke of Aquitaine sang the praises of romance and seduced women all over the world, earning France an early reputation as the land that loves to love.  Thus, it’s no surprise that some of our most enduring and tragic love stories come from France: Tristan and Isolde were a knight and princess, respectively, who drank love potion back in the 12th century that drove them into an adulterous relationship. (When in doubt, blame the love potion.)

RosyThe 12th century also brought us Heloise and Abelard, a student and teacher who engaged in more than mere academic pursuits:  “Her studies allowed us to withdraw in private, as love desired,” wrote Abelard of their encounters, “and then with our books open before us, more words of love than of reading passed between us, and more kissing than teaching. My hands strayed more often to her bosom than to the pages; love drew our eyes to look on each other more than reading kept them on our texts.” 

Heloise and Abelard’s medieval tabloid fodder did not end well, but it did spawn countless books about the love-struck French couple that continue to be published to this day.

The centuries rolled on, bringing us more French evangelists of love and sex: François Rabelais was so delightfully debauched that he enjoys his own adjective.

Barbara By the 19th century, Paris had become the go-to spot for Anglo-Saxons looking for love. “Young men are very fond of Paris,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1833, “partly, no doubt, because of the perfect freedom— freedom from observation as well as interferences—in which each one walks after the sight of his own eyes.” American historian/author Washington Irving added that French women were “admirably calculated to set fire to the head and set fire to the tail,” perhaps unwittingly turning French women into the rock stars they are today.

Naturally, lingerie has its place in all this sexy history. One could debate to what extent the French invented love, but there’s no denying that they invented lingerie. “If fashion was a French specialty,” wrote French fashion historian Catherine Ormen, “of all export products the corset was the bestseller…In 1889, there were about a hundred wholesale manufacturers of corsets, over half of them in Paris. No corsets were imported, but they were extensively exported, for at the time there was virtually no competition.”

Lise CharmelIn short, France has always been the epicenter of lingerie and continues to design and produce the world's finest, most exquisitely seductive lingerie in the world. To quote Ormen again: “French lingerie knows how to be alternately modest and sweet, humble and ingenuous or, on the contrary, bold, saucy, enthralled with luxury and capable of playing the seduction game.”  In other words, French lingerie continues to evoke the bold legacy of seduction that has been passed on through the centuries in France, long before Saint Valentine took the spotlight with Cupid's arrow.

More boudoir basics made for and with love:

Simone Pérèle

Passionata

Aubade

Louisa Bracq