TRIGRE, PAULINE

born Nov. 4, 1912, Paris, France French-born American couturiere whose award-winning design work was especially popular in the United States in the 1950s and '60s. Trigre was the daughter of a tailor. She early learned to sew and helped her mother custom-tailor women's clothes. After graduating from the Collge Victor Hugo in Issy les Moulineaux, France, she went to work in the salon of Martial et Armand in the Place Vendme, where she learned how to design and construct women's clothing. In 1937 she moved to the United States and seven years later became a U.S. citizen. In 1942, after working for several New York fashion houses, Trigre established Trigre, Inc., in order to produce her own designs. Her mastery of French styling attracted major buyers across the country, and as her personal style developed she assumed a position at the forefront of American couture. In 1949 she received the Coty American Fashion Critics' Award, an honour she repeated in 1951 and in 1959; on the latter occasion she was inducted into the Coty Fashion Hall of Fame. While her designs were generally conservative, Trigre pioneered the use of such textiles as cotton and wool for evening dresses and devised such novelties as the reversible coat, the mobile collar, the spiral jacket, and the sleeveless coat. By 1958 Trigre, Inc., enjoyed annual sales in excess of $2 million, and by 1992 Trigre was the only designer to have remained in business for 50 years. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1993.