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🌹 Trio-Ette Triple Vanity Compact - Molded Rose, Red-Amber Plastic
This is a Trio-Ette vanity compact, shaped like a small hand mirror and molded in translucent red-amber plastic, with a deeply molded rose pressed into the lid inside a raised beaded border. It's a genuine "triple" compact - mirror, powder, rouge, and a lipstick built into the handle, all in one hand-sized case.
📋 Specifications
- Design: Trio-Ette, House of Platé (Detroit, Michigan)
- Made: United States
- Date: 1940s-1950s
- Material: Translucent molded plastic, red-amber ("red" colourway)
- Size: Approx. 2 x 3 inches
- Includes: Round mirror in the lid, a second smaller mirror, a powder well with sifter and puff, a rouge well with puff, and a lipstick handle
- Marks: None - identified by the design, not a stamp or signature
- Condition: Display grade - lipstick cap missing, latch does not hold shut
- Quantity: One compact - this is the exact piece you will receive
💄 The Trio-Ette Story
The House of Platé of Detroit, Michigan put the Trio-Ette on the market in 1945, advertising it as "the amazing new triple compact that blows make up fatigue and bag fumbling." It sold for $5 in a gift box, refills included, and it wasn't just a domestic seller - by 1949 a London mail-order company was carrying it in Britain too. Platé made it in mock ebony, ivory, tortoise shell, green, pink, and blue; this one is the deep, glowing red-amber shade the trade calls "red." The molded rose on the lid, and its beaded border, were styled after Victorian hand-held cameo mirrors.
🔧 Condition
Two flaws: the lipstick cap that once fit the base of the handle is gone, and the latch has lost the small internal piece that used to hold the lid shut, so it will pop open unless you mind it. Everything else is here and doing its job - both mirrors are present, both puffs are present and soft with age, and there's still pink rouge and powder residue sitting in their original wells. Everything I sell is stored in the dark, under 40% relative humidity, at a steady 72°F, climate controlled, so it isn't aging further on my watch.
