Born in Paris on November 4, 1912, Pauline TrigÅre was the daughter of a tailor. She early learned to sew and helped her mother custom-tailor women╒s clothes. After graduating from the Collage Victor Hugo she went to work in the salon of Martial et Armand in the Place VendÖme and began learning the secrets of design and construction of women╒s clothing. In 1937 she moved to the United States with her mother, her brother, and two children from her dissolved marriage. She worked for New York fashion houses for five years and then in 1942 established TrigÅre, Inc. to produce her own designs.
With her brother Robert as salesman she achieved rapid success. Her mastery of French styling attracted major buyers across the country, and as her originality developed she assumed a position at the forefront of American couture. She was naturalized in 1944. In 1949 she was the recipient of the Coty American Fashion Critics╒ Award, an honor she repeated in 1951 and in 1959, on the latter occasion being inducted into the Coty Fashion Hall of Fame. While her designs were generally conservative, she made innovative use of such textiles as cotton (winning the 1959 Cotton Award thereby) and wool (in evening dresses) and devised such novelties as the reversible coat, the mobile collar, the spiral jacket, and the sleeveless coat. By 1958 TrigÅre, Inc. enjoyed annual sales in excess of $2 million, and the firm continued thereafter to prosper. By 1992 TrigÅre was the only designer to have remained in business for fifty years. She received the Silver Medal of the City of Paris in 1972 and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1993.
