#18. A Conversation with Betty Halbreich and Audrey Smaltz Share Memories on Pauline Trigère

Betty Halbreich, Audrey Smaltz and author in Betty's office

Audrey Smaltz with Lionel Hampton at a party hosted by Pauline Trigère in 1982. Jane Tucker archive.

Through my friend and fashion designer Laura Smalls, [website here} I got in touch with Audrey Smaltz; a good friend of Pauline. A former model turned fashion editor for “Ebony” Magazine. After the initial telephone interview with Audrey, I arranged a joint interview of Audrey and Betty Halbreich at Bergdorf Goodman’s. This joint interview between two fashion veterans: Betty at 94 years of age and Audrey at 86 resulted in uncovering of fascinating stories as they jogged each-other’s memories recalling yesteryear in the fashion industry.

Audrey stated she was “born, breed, toasted, and buttered in Harlem.” Although her family later moved to the south side of Chicago, something coincidently she had in common with Betty. Being tall and beautiful, Audrey began her career as a fashion model and worked for the Grace del Marco fashion agency. This was the premier fashion agency for Black models in the 1950s and 60s. Later she became fashion editor for Ebony magazine and was the host/narrator for Ebony Fashion Shows. In 1977 when she turned 40, she started her own company called the “Ground Crew” which supported the fashion industry. She provided the backstage team for fashion shows and other events.

Betty described Pauline as tough and occupied a big section of the 4th floor at Bergdorf’s. Audrey also recalled an event called “Blacks at Bergdorf’s” in 1969. Another discovery was that for the United Airline’s 50th Anniversary in 1980, Stan Herman of CFDA hired Audrey Smaltz to be the Master of Ceremony for the event. Pauline's long time associate Lucie Porges designed a futuristic stewardess outfit for the House of Trigère for this anniversary event. Besides one small press clipping, little information related to this event were available on the internet. Luckily, seven months later I was able to find a catalog of this event at Parson’s school archive.

Audrey reminisced about the red cape Pauline had made for her when she attended the inauguration ceremony of President Ronald Reagan. Pauline also made a white wool evening gown for Audrey. A visit to Audrey's home in New Jersey led to discovery of additional garments and photographs, a separate blog entry is [here].

Both Betty and Audrey recalled stories working with the buyers from Saks Fifth Avenue and also Helen O’Hagan from the Saks PR department. Betty stated when the Saks buyer came everyone would be shaking with nervousness. They both worked for Oscar de la Renta at different times in very different aspects of the business. Betty described when she worked in the showroom and tripped over the long evening gowns, she was fired and “lasted for only one semester”. Betty's interesting life stories are documented in her fascinating memoir: “I’ll Drink to That.” It is a biography I have purchased many copies after reading and it is a fabulous present to all my friends with Betty's autograph!

Audrey described how after on particular incident, Oscar told her to add herself to the invoice for the service of Ground Crew, as up until then, Audrey had not charged a fee for herself. “So I charged additional $1,500 for myself for the show, thanks to Oscar!” Donna Karan was another designer that always hired Audrey’s team for her fashion shows and Donna also got Audrey to coordinate trunk shows at Bergdorf's.

Betty just completed her third book which is due to be published soon and Audrey is currently working on her memoir which is being released soon. This was a fascinating joint interview having the two fashion veterans reminiscent years past. When I got home, I noticed a beautiful note Betty put inside my tote bag, it reads: "come back often, you make my brain work." which really touched me. My research journey of the iconic Pauline Trigère has brought me to meet amazing people, it has yielded so many great stories and wonderful memories.

April 16, 2022