Marie-Louise Carven

Marie-Louise Carven (31 August 1909 – 8 June 2015), born Carmen de Tommaso, was a French fashion designer who founded the house of Carven in 1945. She was noted for her designs for petite women, her use of lightweight fabrics such as lace and pink gingham, and for being one of the first couturieres to launch a prêt-à-porter line. She was the first Paris designer to patent a push-up bra. When the police came for Bricanier, she hid him in the building where her shop was, and allowed him to continue his work.

Career

In 1945, at the age of 36, Carven opened her fashion house on the Champs-Élysées. The name Carven combined Carmen, her given name, with the last name of her aunt Josy Boyriven, who introduced her to couture. The 5'1" Carven focused her line on petite women, "because [she] was too short to wear the creations of the top couturiers, who only ever showed their designs on towering girls."

Carven designed uniforms for the 1976 French Olympic team, Parisian traffic wardens, Eurostar staff, She also worked for the costume and wardrobe department for the film The Red Shoes (1948), and for the episode Gold (1952) of the television series Foreign Intrigue.

In 2001, she gifted her archives to the Musée Galliera.

At her hundredth birthday party in 2009, she was made a commander of the Legion of Honor.