#19. Delve Into the Legacy of Pauline Trigère: A Look Back at 50 Years at Kent State Exhibition

Pauline Trigère Retrospective at Kent State in 1994

A faded newsprint article featured a photo of Pauline with her good friend Shannon Rogers titled: “50 year of excellence honored” KSU Museum hosts Trigere retrospective” written by Dotty Lane. After contacting Kent State Costume Institute's Collection Manager Joanne Fenn, she sent me the actual catalog from the Retrospective which featured 58 pieces of Trigère garments, along with photographs from the exhibition. Flipping through the complete list of garments from the exhibition catalog was one of the highlight of my research journey. Each garment was sketched by Pauline’s long time associate Lucie Porges, with it a short description of the garment. Among the collection from the Kent State Costume archive, there were many iconic dresses that were worn by Ms.Trigère herself.

The exhibition displayed all of Trigère’s garments staged in a red backdrop and red carpets. Red being Trigère’s signature color. Garments were grouped by category and color. The exhibition was predominantly evening dresses such as full-length shimmering evening gowns, gold brocade dresses, and suits. Her iconic outerwear wool and fur coats were another major section of the exhibition. Many of the garments I had seen Ms.Trigère wearing from various photographs at different events. The gold brocade dress Pauline was seen wearing at her 50th Golden Jubilee celebration at the Fashion Institute of Technology, you can see a photo of Trigère wearing the dress in this blog. A beautiful halter neckline evening gown in black which she wore when she received her third Coty Award. It was an honor she share with designer James Galanos, which they had a joint party afterwards as both were Hall of Famers, a separate blog covers that story [here]. Another bright colorful brocade dress was made from multiple Japanese Obi fabric, joined together to create a stunning jacket and matching skirt. On display were also her iconic jumpsuits adorned with crystals along the neckline. There was also an evening gown which she wore when she was photographed by Richard Avedon.

The show catalog also led me to “The Western Reserve Historical Society,” (WRHS) nearby which also housed some of the Trigère garments and had loaned some items for this exhibition, a separate blog detailed my interview with the WRHS curator Pat Edmonson [here].

I remember vividly sitting in the airport lounge after having just received these photos, I feel like I could have danced on air! The discovery of this group of these new material was was one of the highlight of my research journey. You can see additional photos in my upcoming book: "Pauline Trigère: La Vie En Rouge."