George W. Trippon

• Birth Name — George Washington Trippon • Born — 26 February 1916 • Birthplace — Aurora, Illinois • Died — 2010 • Place of death — Redondo Beach, California • Occupation — Fashion designer, educator, writer, television presenter • Known for — Founding of the Trippon Fashion Center design school in Los Angeles • Television — Sew, What's New • Boards — Hollywood Beauty League • Partner — James W. Price

Trippon was born in 1916 in Aurora, Illinois, to parents George and Mary, both Romanian immigrants. At age nine, he attended dance school and later appeared in a number of Hollywood musicals. He served in World War II as a U.S. Army Quartermaster, and after discharge, he studied fashion design in Paris and Los Angeles. He opened his own fashion-design school and operated it during the 1950s where one of his students was Olive Osmond. In 1956, he was elected president of the Hollywood Beauty League, an organization dedicated to promoting Los Angeles as a cultural hub. He worked with both Rudi Gernreich and James Galanos in couture design. In the 1970s, Trippon began hosting the television show Sew, What's New? on local television in Los Angeles; in 1975, the show began airing on stations outside of Los Angeles with support from the Butterick Publishing Company. In the 1980s, the show moved to The Learning Channel and broadcast there until the 1990s. Trippon also wrote several books on fashion design as well as memoirs. He died in Redondo Beach, California on New Year's Day in 2010.