Irene Segalla came from Paris to start her professional career in 1914 as a fashion designer for the houses of Debenham and Handley-Seymour. One of her most famous designs was for Queen Elizabeth's dress for the Coronation, 1937. Segalla had a great love of the theatre and worked with Attlio Comelli designing costumes for pantomimes at Drury Lane and for the London production of Showboat. In the 1930s she worked for British Gaumont designing costumes for a number of films, she then moved to M.G.M., a number of films she worked on included Mrs Miniver and Ivanhoe.