It was the beginning of a career that took her to the design houses of Europe, back to Chicago for design, fitting and making of costumes for the Hollywood movie and music industry and elegant gowns for the socially and politically elite.
Trudell went from Pucci to Gucci, then formed her own couture business in Chicago, and now she's back home in Southern Pines, living in her childhood home and working as co-owner and co-operator of The Whole Nine Yards.
"This is our midlife crisis. If we'd been smart, we'd have bought a Jag," she says, laughing with her business partner and lifelong friend, Jean Irvin.
Operating a business is not easy in this day of rapid social and economic change, amid a baffling array of bureaucratic obstacles, but the two women set out to found a business they could enjoy into their retirement years.
"We wanted to have fun doing it," Trudell says. "We wanted this to be a fun environment. We have wonderful clients."
The shop at 295 Pinehurst Ave. in Southern Pines is a fun place, but also a colorful place. A rainbow of fabrics in all designs and styles catches the eye as the customer enters. The Whole Nine Yards sells fashion fabrics, quilting fabrics, offers classes in sewing and quilting, provides alteration service, and sells all related sewing notions, such things as thread, buttons, zippers and scissors.
Her brother, Raoul Trudell of Southern Pines, provides the Husqvarna sewing machine repair service.
Trudell's interest in fashion design began in Southern Pines and that's where it's centered today following a 30-year career in Chicago.
In between these achievements lies a life accented by hard work as well as glamor.
Dream of a Lifetime
Trudell was born and grew up in Southern Pines. Her parents, the late Ray and Sue Trudell, owned and operated a jewelry store bearing their name.
The family lived in the Elks Club area of town, off what is known as the Cardinal Course, or even more familiarly, "the little nine." That's where she lives today.
After graduating from East Southern Pines High School, Trudell attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then transferred to UNC-Greensboro to major in home economics. The emphasis was on design and dressmaking.
Fresh out of college, she was offered an apprenticeship with the Emilio Pucci design house in Florence, Italy, in 1973, and she grabbed it.
Trudell had never been outside the United States and had no idea what experiences were in store. So she latched on to Jean Irvin, her friend since first grade, they packed their bags and flew off to Italy and the glamorous world of design. Irvin went along for a few vacation weeks, but Trudell worked as a Pucci's apprentice for a full year, then worked six months for Valentino, another fashion designer in Florence.
The work involved a little of everything -- fabric manufacturing, making garments, dressing, fitting and even some modeling.
"I went just for experience in the industry," she says. "My pay was $50 a week, which was a luxury because usually you were paying to apprentice with them."
She adds that the experience of working with Pucci and his design team was the dream of a lifetime.
Trudell didn't like the modeling. She laughs and then says, "I was skinny then."
But she says modeling is not as glamorous a job as most people think. Hers was the fashion show type of modeling, where models are dressed by half a dozen hands, swept onto the ramp and off, then undressed and redressed by that same team of hands and hustled back onto the ramp. Someone was always holding a bowl of ice cubes to wipe away any signs of perspiration.
Although a member of the Italian nobility, Pucci was a graduate of the University of Georgia. Trudell's initial interview with him was in Athens, Ga.
‘Life Is Fast'
Returning to the United States, Trudell at first considered returning to UNC-G to work toward a master's degree in chemical research.
Those were the days when additives were being studied for children's sleepwear, a subject she found interesting.
She decided to drop that endeavor and headed to Chicago and a job with Gucci. She knew little about Chicago but did have friends there.
"I thought that the worst thing that can happen is that I won't like it there, and I can always come back home," she says.
For about a year, she headed the alterations department for Gucci, then went to work for a Chicago designer of costumes for the Hollywood movie and music industry. Gladys Knight was among the celebrities for whom she fitted costumes.
This work involved extensive travel and a work schedule that often found her fitting costumes in Hollywood at 1 or 2 a.m., then flying back to Chicago for a regular work day.
"You had to work on the entertainers' schedule," she says. "It's exhausting, but it's fun."
In a few years, the company went out of business, and Trudell decided to open her own couture dressmaking business in Chicago.
This turned out to be a smart move and a successful one. Trudell soon lined up a clientele that included A-list personalities as well as everyday people. Clients included socialites, the wives of government officials, and local celebrities, wealthy people who must be outfitted for the opening night of opera season, for premieres and charity balls.
"Everything happens in the city," she says. "Life is fast. Life is wonderful. I lived in Chicago longer than I lived anywhere else in my life. That, to me, is my home."
She says "something was always going on," but it is an expensive place to live.
"I traveled a lot and made some really neat friends," she says.
No Fashion Designer
Trudell volunteered for the Chicago Film Festival, where she met Academy Award-winning Hollywood designer Edith Head. They worked together organizing a fashion show.
After that experience, Trudell interviewed for a position with Edith Head at Universal City in California and was offered the job. She gave it serious consideration. Edith Head was, after all, one of the most prestigious fashion designers of the day.
But Hollywood was too far from home, and Trudell turned down the offer. That was a providential decision, because Edith Head died a few months later.
Trudell makes no claims to be a fashion designer. For one thing, she does not do sketches.
Nevertheless, she does design clothing and can make a garment based on the client's sketch or from a photograph in a magazine.
"I can take your ideas and make them into a garment," she says.
Trudell produced "tons of wedding dresses, ball gowns and suits" while working in Chicago. Her clients included governors' wives and the mayor's wife.
One of her dresses is in a Chicago museum. Another is on display in a museum in Singapore.
Trudell was working with natural fibers only, silk, wool, cotton. Chicago is a cold city with "seven months of winter," and wool is always a popular fabric there.
"Chicago is not a polyester city," she says.
Vatican Wedding Gown
Of all the dresses she made or helped to design, her favorite is a wedding gown for a bride who was married at the Vatican by the late Pope John Paul II.
This turned out to be a formidable task, one with plenty of challenge, which Trudell met with enthusiasm and her usual degree of imagination.
The Vatican sent a set of criteria of dos and don'ts.
Perhaps the first challenge was pleasing the bride and satisfying Vatican protocol. The bride wanted a strapless gown, but bare-shouldered garments are not worn in the Vatican.
So Trudell worked with the bride to design a strapless gown with a stole-like "shrug" that fitted around the shoulders, giving the appearance of a short modest jacket. It was quite suitable for the private chapel at the Vatican where the ceremony was held. Afterward the bride could toss the stole and enjoy the strapless gown at the reception.
Made of Italian silk satin, the gown had a hand-appliqued lace bodice and skirt with a cathedral length veil.
Trudell remembers stitching lace around the edge of that veil. It was French re-embroidered beaded lace with iridescent sequins. The lace cost $250 a yard, and the gown required eight yards of lace.
"Then Enron happened," she recalls.
The energy trading giant went under, taking with it the prestigious Arthur Anderson accounting firm. Among her clients were seven wives of Arthur Anderson executives.
"It took a huge chunk of my business," she says.
‘Whole Nine Yards'
About that time her mother became seriously ill, and Trudell faced the fact that it was time to go home.
In the meantime, Jean Irvin found herself unemployed, and Southern Pines Fabrics went out of business, leaving a gap in local service needs.
The two friends decided to open a fabric store.
Trudell says that she had always intended to return home, and 2002 was the right time to make the move.
Irvin came to Chicago and helped her pack up her belongings from her condo on the 24th floor of a high-rise building, where she had "a piece of the sky."
They rented a 17-foot long U-Haul truck to make the trip back to North Carolina. It turned into one of their "Thelma and Louise" experiences because the vehicle had some shortcomings for such a long trip, involving 17 hours of driving time.
They opened The Whole Nine Yards on Sept. 3, 2002.
Business was so brisk that they soon outgrew the original shop and rented additional space. That allowed them to offer classes in sewing and quilting.
In the first six weeks, the two entrepreneurs found themselves working every night, without time to breathe. They hired their first employee, then hired a second, and now have a workforce of five people who help with retail sales and alterations. They don't have time to make clothing, but Jean handles the home decorating aspect, making curtains and pillows.
Trudell admits that she misses "high fashion" in Chicago. That is her first love, but she recognizes that it's time to wind down and have fun.
Since moving back to Southern Pines, Trudell has added two four-footed family members, a golden retriever named Charmeuse (French for silk satin) and a five-month-old Scottie named Paisley.
Sometimes Paisley and Charmeuse come to work and are joined by Jean's pets. They even have a few customers who drop by just to visit with the pets.
Challenging Work
The shop is a continuing challenge and the work is hard.
"It takes literally every minute of your life. It takes an incredible amount of work and time to get where we are today," Trudell says, but she loves it.
Irvin says it's fun to work with her friend and she enjoys the challenges, despite the responsibility they face for such necessities as rent, utilities, insurance and other financial obligations, not to mention all the bureaucratic red tape of running a business.
"But we've been friends forever. She's the social one. I'm the serious one," Irvin says.
Trudell is sure they'll make it.
"After all, we haven't killed each other," she says to more laughter. "We're both still alive at 56."
Why did they decide on the store's name? There is, of course, a tale behind that.
While still in Chicago after making the decision to return to North Carolina, she and a friend were crossing a busy street. Trudell recalls that her head was spinning from all the excitement of the upcoming change, the regrets about moving and the multitude of decisions to be made. The friend said: "Why not call your shop The Whole Nine Yards?"
Trudell thought about it and figured that the shop would be dealing with fabric and everything that goes with it.
She remembered too that it takes nine yards to make a kilt, and it takes nine yards of ammunition for a machine gun. Nine yards is a useful measurement, she decided.
Florence Gilkeson can be reached at 947-4962 or by e-mail at florence@thepilot.com.
