The Carven name comes from the first three letters of its founder, Carmen de Tommaso, and the last letters of her aunt's name, Boyriven. Locals soon came to call Carmen 'Madame Carven'. Married to the industrialist René Grog, she wanted for nothing. Carven herself was a petite Frenchwoman of around 1.5 metres, and because of her height she struggled to find suitable clothing, so in 1945 she opened her own atelier to dress all the 'non-standard' women of France. In the 1950s her clientele grew so quickly that she expanded the studio across the entire first floor of the building and took on assistants. Notably, Carven House also began producing costume jewellery. The atelier's fame reached far beyond Paris: the Princess of Egypt was a client, as were the celebrated Michèle Morgan, Leslie Caron and Édith Piaf, who ordered both clothing and jewellery.