We can all thank the French for bringing us gallantry, courtly love, and the art of seduction - that’s why everyone associates France with the expression “oo-la-la.” But the French also brought us the world’s most celebrated female revolutionary (yes, that would be Marianne storming the Bastille!) and its most famous feminist: Simone de Beauvoir.

We’re not sure what kind of lingerie Simone de Beauvoir wore (surely it was French), but the history of women has involved radical changes, and French lingerie has always reflected them, from the time of the troubadours to the days of bra-burning. In this short video, French fashion curator Catherine Ormen waxes poetic on the extraordinary ways that lingerie has liberated women, from our 19th century sisters to today’s modern woman, who understands the power of being both feminist and feminine.