​​​​​​​Susan Evans Grove

An up and coming lingerie designer gets Coco Channel’s panties in a bunch. 

Already put out to pasture at the age of 28 Elva La Treque plays the supporting, albeit stylish, role as Coco Channel in “The Stylemaker". The spotlight of the story is on newcomer Paloma Petroika who plays an up and coming designer gunning for Channel’s job.The plot read too closely to La Treque’s professional real life experiences of being pushed out of the limelight to make room for younger actresses. Like Channel the actress maintains her charm and dignity and in the end of the film we see that experience matters. Unfortunately Mitsumount did not heed its own script and La Treque would soon find herself far outside of the spotlight completely. 

The film also had the added scandal of La Treque’s then husband Armand Steele running off with the younger Petroika at the end of filming.