When Travilla was sixteen, he began to frequent burlesque clubs in order to design the dancers' costumes.

Upon graduating from Woodbury, Travilla began working at Western Costume in Hollywood as ghost-sketcher for studio designers.

At Jack's, he was given assignments working for ice skater and actress Sonja Henie as well as for United Artists and Columbia Pictures.

Travilla began selling Tahiti-inspired paintings at the popular tiki bar Don The Beachcomber.

By 1952, Travilla had begun working with Marilyn Monroe and created the costumes for Don't Bother to Knock and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Monroe is wearing it while standing on a New York City Subway ventilation grate; the dress rises up around her as a train passes below ground.

On November 2, 1990, Travilla died of lung cancer at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

The collection includes gowns worn by Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Dandridge, Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston, Faye Dunaway, Judy Garland, Sharon Tate, Jane Russell, Betty Grable, Lana Turner, Diahann Carroll, Susan Hayward, Loretta Young, Joanne Woodward, Barbara Stanwyck and many other women in film and television, as well as his Oscar, patterns, sewing room artifacts and numerous original watercolor renderings of his costume designs.