Photo of four bigoudenes taken in 2009 at Guilvinec. In the foreground, Marie-Louise Lopéré, who died on Tuesday. In the background, Alexia Caoudal, still alive. – ZEPPELIN / SIPA
- Marie-Louise Lopéré died Tuesday evening at the age of 97 in Penmarc’h, in Finistère.
- She was one of the last bigoudenes to wear the headdress and had been made famous by her appearance in an advertisement for Tipiak.
- The last woman wearing the headdress is called Alexia Caoudal and is 94 years old.
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Thirty-five to forty centimeters of fine lace proudly erected above the head. Years passed but the Bigoudene headdress remains one of the emblems of Brittany. Brought to the general public by Tipiak (Pirates!) Advertising or by stickers of the A Aise Breizh brand, this symbol of the region lost Tuesday evening one of its most beautiful ambassadors.
Marie-Louise Lopéré died at the age of 97 in the Penmarc’h nursing home where she had been living for a few years. It was there, at the very end of Finistère, that this elegant white headdress was born. And this is where it will probably die out in a few years.
“She was elegant. Marie-Louise had a beautiful port of head. She liked to put on her headdress, like all those who chose to continue wearing it ” Michel Bolzer is one of the most
connoisseurs of the traditional costume of his territory, the Bigouden country. It is here, in this end of the country uniting 20 municipalities south of Quimper (Finistère), that the famous headdress was born several centuries ago. The embroiderers did not know that their creation would become the emblem of a region and a sticker that would be stuck on the back of a four-wheeled motor vehicle called a car.
Very popular at the start of the 20th century, the lace headdress was gradually put away in the wooden cupboards of cold stone houses in the Bigouden region. “In 1976, around 3,000 women still wore it,” says Michel Bolzer. The industrial revolution and the acceleration of our rhythms of life had almost had their skin. “For convenience, for modernity, some have stopped wearing it.” But not Marie-Louise Lopéré, who continued to hoist her headdress until 2017, the year of her hospitalization.
“It’s an emblematic face that is gone”
At the height of her 90 years, she even agreed to lend her image to the Tipiak brand in 2012 to replace the three bigoudènes too old to continue shooting. “She didn’t do it to show off but she’s not proud to wear this costume,” said Raynald Tanter. The mayor of Penmarc’h will remain marked for life by the headdress. That of his grandmother, but also those of his most famous citizens. “It’s an iconic face that is gone. It’s sad. She always had a smile, ”says the mayor.
Brittany: Bigoudene Marie-Louise Lopéré, star of Tipiak advertising, dies https://t.co/mrZGFlN5CI via @ 20minutesRennes pic.twitter.com/v9rSK84KnH
– 20 Minutes Rennes (@ 20minutesrennes) April 9, 2020
In recent years, his commune, like those in the surrounding area, have seen their bigoudenes go out one by one. Most were over 90, some such as the iconic Maria Lambour,Have even been centenarians. There seems to be only one left. Alexia Caoudal, a 94-year-old “young girl” who also filmed for Tipiak in the Kerazan manor, in Loctudy. “She also lives in an Ehpad and does not go out every day. But when her children come to pick her up, she always likes to wear a headdress, ”assures her friend Michel Bolzer, aware that the costume is living its last years” naturally “. “We expect it. The day Alexia is gone, it will be weird in the landscape. Here, each bigoudene who leaves, it speaks. They know they are the last. “
The headdress, an elixir to prolong life?
Looking at the age of departure, we can however think that this elegant montage of lace acts as a magic elixir prolonging the life of those who wear it. “All of these women have lived hard lives. They started working early and often had to manage everything at home when their husbands were at sea. All of them have strong characters, strength and unwavering will, ”says Michel Bolzer. Perhaps the recipe for a long life.
