Marie-Paule Nolin

Who was Marie-Paule Nolin?

Marie-Paule Nolin was a French Canadian high-fashion designer who lived and worked in the province of Quebec, Canada.

Marie-Paule Archambault started out as a vendeuse for Raoul-Jean Fouré who had launched his fashion house in Montreal in about 1927. At the age of 26 she launched a dressmaking business on what would become the De Maisonneuve Boulevard. She received publicity early on through her participation in a charity fashion show at the Windsor Hotel, and after a trip to Paris where she visited several fashion salons, she came back to launch her own fashion salon at 648 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal in 1936. From 1941-1949, she ran a couture workroom, employing about twenty workers, in the department store Holt Renfrew from Montréal, where her creations could be purchased from the Salon Marie-Paule.

Marie-Paule married Jean Nolin in 1949, and they had two daughters, Patricia and Marie-Claire.

From 1949 to 1955 Marie-Paule worked from home, until in 1955 she relocated her business to an office at 1426 Sherbrooke Street, operating as 'Marie-Paule Haute Couture'.