Biography

Pauline Trigere, Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman were all contemporaries and great friends.  In the mid-1980s when Shannon and Jerry came to Kent State and started the Kent State University Museum and The Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman School of Fashion Design and Merchandising, their friend Pauline wanted to make a contribution. So, she gave Kent State University the entire collection of her years of sketchbooks. What a treasure!

Today, the Trigere sketchbooks reside in the June F. Mohler Fashion Library at Kent State University. In addition, the Kent State University Museum houses many Trigere garments. The sketches span the years 1944 to 1994. This website shares with you a look at selected sketches through the years as well as garments in the museum.

In 2000, I was able to obtain a grant from the Murphy Foundation, which made the work on this web site possible.  Elizabeth W. De Stefano was the web site designer and was greatly assisted by a fashion student, Nicole Varuolo.  So, a debt of gratitude is owed to the Murphy Foundation and to Elizabeth and Nicole for making this site possible.

Pauline Trigere was described by Eleni Sakes Epstein as…"an intellectual designer; the designer's designer". She was known for superbly designed and constructed garments. Trigere always brought a sense of style as well as comfort to the women she dressed.

Pauline Trigere came from a family where everyone was involved in the garment production business. Her father produced military uniforms in his native country of Russia and then in the later part of the Twentieth century he designed for stores such as Galeries Lafayette and Bon Marche. Her mother had a Paris boutique and her atelier was in the back of the apartment where Pauline grew up. Later, she would marry Lazar Radley, who was a Paris suit and coat manufacturer. So, Pauline Trigere learned the trade by observation and by being a member of a family where learning the business at an early stage in life was inevitable.

In the 1930s Pauline, her two young sons, her brother and her mother set out with the thought of making a new life for themselves in Chile. They stopped in New York and Adele Simpson helped Pauline find a job with Hattie Carnegie. However, during the depression Carnegie had to dismiss Trigere. This only spurred her on to open her own business, which grew enormously as the war years forced the U.S. to focus on its own design talent.

By 1949, Trigere had won her first Cody Award. Two years later she would have the second one. A decade later, in 1959, she became the first woman to be elected to fashion's Hall of Fame.

Today, in 2001, Pauline Trigere remains an energetic woman filled with design ideas. She is a lively hostess and continues to enjoy a beautiful party, and is frequently photographed in vibrant red. Currently, Golden Violin offers on-line and catalog customers her creativity for the senior market in the form of pouches on walkers and eyeglass cases.

The reader will enjoy reading the articles identified in the bibliography included with this web site. We invite you to view the images of her sketches and her garments that we have at Kent State University. If you are a researcher and wish to come in person for additional information, please contact us.

A special thank you to Pauline Trigere for making her archives available to the world through the June F. Mohler Library at Kent State University!

Elizabeth A. Rhodes, Ph.D. 

Director and Professor      

Shannon Rodgers & Jerry Silverman School of Fashion Design & Merchandising   

Kent State University  

Kent, Ohio 44242-0001                                                                                                        

Erhodes1@kent.edu