Pauline Trigère demonstrates her draping technique for Mount Mary staff and students in a fashion department classroom, December 1973. Coat worn by model is included in the Digital Fashion Archive, Object ID #2003.04.01.
Source: School Sisters of Notre Dame North American Archives
As a child, Pauline Trigère (1908-2002) learned to sew and help her mother custom-tailor women’s clothes. After graduating from the Collège Victor Hugo, she learned to design and construct women’s clothing in the salon of Martial et Armand in Paris. In 1937, she moved to New York. After working for several fashion houses, Trigère opened her own business in 1942, Trigère, Inc., and continued producing her clothing line until 1992.
Trigère was known for creating garments featuring precise cuts using fabric with bold graphic prints. Trigère combined a convervative design style with innovations such as the use of cotton and wool for evening clothes, the mobile collar, and the reversible coat.
In December 1973, Pauline Trigère visited Mount Mary and spent time with fashion design students. Trigère generously shared her insight on the fashion industry, offered a professional appraisal of student work, and demonstrated her scissors-in-hand technique for cutting and draping. She explained the motivation for her visit to Mount Mary in an interview with the Milwaukee Sentinel: "I'm doing it for the kids because of my belief in my fellowmen."
