The history of textile workers, at the center of the documentary The seamstress centuryon France 3 Monday, March 7, is that of the condition of workers and women, of the Industrial Revolution at the time of relocation. A difficult story, long remained in the shadows and punctuated by social struggles. She is told to us by the actress Corinne Masiero (staggeringly sober) but also by former spinners, winders, weavers… The combination of their sensitive testimonies, archive images (many of them colored) and songs from the time make this adventure palpable.
The proliferation of factory convents or the exploitation of young girls
Convent-workshops, the fruit of the association of industrialists with the Church, developed for the most part in the 1850s and 1860s. It was Claude-Joseph Bonnet who invented them and opened the very first establishment of this type in the Lyon region, in Jujurieux. In its silks, young girls from poor or modest families were locked up and exploited until their marriage. Cheap labor. At Jujurieux, there were up to 800 boarders supervised by the nuns, responsible for instilling in them morality. Françoise Vinoche, former worker of the place, recounts the daily life of her predecessors: “It was not easy for them. They worked in terrible conditions in the steam, without heating. They were getting lung diseases.“
The midinettes, these little hands that dressed the French
The term midinette, which today designates a simple, sentimental and frivolous young girl, used to describe the little hands of the Belle Époque. These young girls, often from the provinces, worked in Parisian workshops. They were so called because, at lunchtime, at noon, they sat down on the benches to have a “dinette”. One of them has carved out a place of choice in the world of haute couture: the famous Coco Chanel.
When Herminie Cadolle invented the bra
Women owe a lot to Herminie Cadollethis corset maker, who participated in the Commune at the same time as Louise Michel. In 1889, following a stay in Argentina, she returned to France and created the bra, then called “corselet-gorge” or “maintien-gorge”. She filed a patent in 1898 then founded the Cadolle lingerie house in 1910, which still exists today.
TV shows:
The seamstress centuryunpublished documentary, Monday March 7, at 9.10 p.m. on France 3.
