Vintage dress is timeless

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Feb 28, 2003 by Helaine Fendelman

Dear Helaine and Joe: I bought this dress many years ago at a resale shop. It has a label inside for Pauline Trigere. Does it have any value? -- S.W., Naples, Fla.

Dear S.W.: Pauline Trigere, the daughter of Russian immigrants, was born and raised in Paris, France. Her father was a tailor and her mother a dressmaker, and Pauline worked as an apprentice in the family tailor shop until her father's death in 1932.

She then went to work for the couture house, Martial et Armand, which was located in the Place Vendome. On a trip from Paris to Chile, Trigere made a stop in New York City and decided to stay.

She initially found employment with suit and dress designer Ben Gershal and later with dress designer Travis Banton. Trigere then worked with the famous hat and dressmaker Hattie Carnegie before she went out on her own in 1942 and established a company that initially produced a small collection of about a dozen designs.

By the late 1940s Trigere had expanded her line and become known for the timelessness and femininity of her designs. She was best known for her dresses, coats and capes, and many of Trigere's creations featured reversible designs and attached jewelry with the image of a turtle being her signature talisman.

Reportedly, Trigere did not sketch her ideas but preferred to work by draping fabric on either dress forms or live models.

In the 1960s, when the dress belonging to S.W. was made, Trigere's company was probably producing about 1,000 garments per year. And by the 1970s some of her pieces sold for more than $1,000. She retired and went out of business in 1993.

Collecting vintage clothing can be very tricky. The rarest and best pieces are never worn and are suitable to be displayed in museums. The very best items can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars each, but these are very seldom, if ever, encountered by the average collector in resale shops.

On a less lofty scale, vintage clothing generally is collected by the so-called "fashionista" who want to wear it in order to make a distinctive fashion statement. To be of interest to these enthusiasts, the article of clothing must be in unstained and unripped condition -- and no exceptions are ever made to this rule.

The size of the garment must be small, and anything over a size 10 is not acceptable in most instances. In the case of the dress belonging to S.W., all of the rhinestones that were originally attached to the top part of the dress need to be there and in good condition or the value is lost.

If the dress in today's question is unstained and unripped, has all its original rhinestones and is a size 10 or smaller, its current insurance replacement value should be between $300 and $500.

Questions can by mailed Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson at P.O. Box 12208, Knoxville, TN 37912-0208.