#35. Pauline Trigère's Show Catalog: "#7657 No Trump"

September 16, 2024

It must be because of the Presidential election looming.  I don’t know how a legendary late fashion designer born in 1908 has anything to do with the current political landscape.

Yet it does.

I stumbled on a Paulie Trigere show listing labeled simply: "No Trump."

On a research trip to New York City, I found an old program that stopped me in my track -- its layout unfolding in tiers, revealing six categories, each titled in French.

les bottes

les trotteurs

quelques fourrures

le noir toujours

l’or et l’argent

le soir …

The entire program unfolds, displaying each categories as a single vertical sheet of paper. Under each heading, it showcases listing of garments in each group, starting with a style number accompanied by a description:

5631  Dress Grey basketweave

5637  Cape orange and grape plaid

5644  Coat Black Extra Dry, Mink Sides

While reading through the description of each style, I noticed the last category under “le soir”, French word for “the evening”,  style number 7657 stood out with an unusual description:

7657  No Trump

While the year of this particular Trigère fashion show was not specified, having just finished reading Julie Satow’s captivating new book, "When Women Ran Fifth Avenue," I theorized this show most likely took place in 1979.

Julie's book told the history of the three iconic New York department stores: Bonwit Teller, Henri Bendel, Lord and Taylor. One particular chapter recounting the final days of the iconic Bonwit Teller, which was demolished in 1979 to make room for the new Trump Tower. The section described the controversy after Trump's acquisition of the original building.

Initially, he had proposed donating the building’s stone bas-relief façade to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a plan that never materialized. Trump, under a pseudonym, dismissed the value of the beautiful carved stones, stating that they were not worth the effort to save. From the perspective of a real-estate developer, the historical artwork was not valuable enough to justify the expense for their preservation. Amid mounting public outcry, Trump later claimed to The New York Times that the stone sculptures posed a safety hazard to pedestrians below. Very quickly during the early hours in the following morning, the building was razed, the bas-relief was jackhammered and completely shattered.

Interestingly, within the descriptions from a fashion show catalog of yesteryear, a luminary fashion designer from the past seems to have a viewpoint on the current presidential candidate and maybe even a preference for the upcoming election.