Marie-Paule Nolin

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Marie-Paule Nolin (born in Saint-Hyacinthe in 1908 - died in Montreal in 1987) is a French Canadian high-fashion designer who lived and worked in the province of Quebec, Canada. She opened her first fashion house in 1936 and became famous for the originality of her design and her unusual use of high-quality materials. In the 1940s, the notorious Holt Renfrew House from Montreal commissioned several collections from Marie-Paule Nolin. In the 1950s, her influence became major in Canada and she was qualified as the grande dame de la haute couture montréalaise and her famous fashion shows became on of the major attraction for in the Canada, making her one of the most influential Canadian designers from the 1950s and the 1960s. From 1959 to 1965, she was also part of the crew of the weekly radio program Femina at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Montreal, informing the audience about design and its philosophical and historical bacground and developpement. Unwelling to sacrifice the quality of her high-quality material to compete with the explosion of the ready-to-wear industries from the 1960s and the 1970's, she decided in 1973 to close her last house and studios located in the Old Montreal. In 1984, a major retrospective of her work was presented by the McCord Museum in Montreal. This Museum is now managing the Bourse Marie-Paule Nolin which is given each year to a young Canadian fashion designer. Marie-Paule Nolin is also the mother of the French Canadian actress Patricia Nolin.