Source: Messynessychic.com

FRANCE – PARIS – The Années Folles in Paris — a time for jazz, literature of the Lost Generation, and a little-known fetish fashion boom. Spearheaded by a husband and wife team largely forgotten by history, Nativa Richard and her husband L. Richard, were the dynamic duo behind a groundbreaking brand called Yva Richard, and opened the world’s first known fetish boutique in Paris. The Richards were busy stitching dreams—or nightmares, depending on your perspective – one leather corset at a time. While the world was dealing with the prelude to World War I, the Richards were creating costumes, hats, shoes, and high-class lingerie. Their boutique was a haven for the fashion-forward and the faintly risqué. But oh, how things escalated.

They founded the company in 1914, just a few weeks before the outbreak of World War I, but by the late 1920s, it had become a successful mail-order business, as well as a photographic studio catering ro a growing demand for erotic prints. Nativa, a talented seamstress, became the fearless face (and body) of their brand and in-house photography. She was a curly-headed mature blonde woman, with a soft, plush, plumply voluptuous figure, shapely legs. Her fetish characters had names such as “Helios” and “Miss Milado”, but she also proudly went by her own name, Nativa. Her penchant for exhibitionism was evident.