More than half of Trigere's 93 years were spent infusing the fashion industry with inspired designs, an inimitable force of character, and a wealth of mots justes.

Trigere, who stopped in New York while fleeing World War II Paris for Chile and never left, presented her first fashion collection in 1943 with her brother, Robert.

The single mother of two managed to make a name for herself in the industry within three years.

The Paris-born designer came from a family of tailors and dressmakers, but it was perhaps her initial theatrical tendencies that made her such an evocative and colorful force in fashion.

"There is room for only one prima donna around here, and that's me," she once told an assistant.

Personally and professionally, she placed style - "what comes from your own inner thing" - above all, becoming renowned for the witty runway commentary she delivered during her presentations, her unabashed honesty (except as to her age, which she only revealed in 1998), and her skills as a sophisticated, unique host.

But her more overt eccentricities were rooted by a meticulous nature, evidenced in her immaculate personal presentation and her designs.

Following in the tradition of masters like Lanvin and Chanel, Trigere eschewed sketches and cut and draped her designs with bolts of cloth.

Her tailoring, too, was impeccable - Trigere often designed dresses with no discernable seams.

Trigere shuttered her ready-to-wear business in 1994 as newer designers came to the fore and several key accounts were forced into bankruptcy still owing her money.

She then concentrated on her accessories business - scarves and jewelry - from a small space on Seventh Avenue until closing that, too, in 2000.

The designer's many contributions to the fashion industry were well lauded, garnering her three Coty Awards, induction in the Coty Hall of Fame, the National Cotton Award and both the silver and vermeil medals of the City of Paris, among others.

In 1993 Trigere was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

The 50th Anniversary of her designing career, celebrated the year before with a benefit fashion show and dinner at the Fashion Institute of Technology, was a landmark event both for Trigere personally and for the industry: she is the only designer in this country to have reached that milestone.

In true Trigere form, the designer instructed friends shortly after her 90th birthday that she wanted to be cremated wearing her trademark bright red lipstick.

When asked why it would matter - who would know whether or not she had lipstick on? - Trigere replied, "I'll know."