House of Carven is a French house, founded in 1945 by Marie-Louise CARVEN (French, 1909-2015) born Carmen de TOMMASO and, having benefited from the name of haute couture until 1996. Madam CARVEN was noted for her designs for small women. 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." She was one of the first couturiers to launch a prêt-à-porter or ready-to-wear and the first Paris designer to patent a push-up bra. Throughout her long career, she became known for youthful fabrics like cotton gingham and broderie anglaise, and also exotic textiles like African wax cloth and Indonesian batik. CARVEN was also the costume designer for eleven films. House of Carven was or is located in Paris at 6. Rond des Champs-Elysees,. Madame CARVEN retired in 1993 and her oeuvre was celebrated in a major retrospective exhibition at the Musée Galliera in 2002 in Paris.