Who is Teal Traina?

Check out this lovely dress. I was sold on the side front pockets. I'm a sucker for a dress pattern with pockets.

It is a Teal Traina dress which meant absolutely nothing to me until I started doing some research into this "fashion dynamo" from the 1960s. I don't recall ever coming across the name in any of my fashion history books. Have you?

My online research into Teal Traina uncovered a different fashion designer behind the name, Geoffrey Beene. I thought that Teal Traina was an actually designer. Instead, it appears that Teal Traina is the name behind a famous design house where Geoffrey Beene worked in the late fifties and early sixties. Could this be a Geoffrey Beene design?

I don't know but I did come across a fascinating article by Patricia Morrisroe where Teal Traina spoke about his years with designer Geoffrey Beene. And this article made me wonder.

All I do know is that I'm quite smitten over this pattern. And I am busy trying to figure out what fabric to make it out of before it arrives in the post.



Morrisroe, Patricia.  New York Magazine.  American Beauty:  The World of Geoffrey Beene.  Vol. 21, No. 22  30 May 1988. Page 30-39.