For almost forty years, Irms Pauli designed costumes for film and television. She participated in over 200 productions and was one of the most industrious woman working in the German film business. She started her career as an assistant for Erna Sander on Wolfgang Staudte"s "Schicksal aus zweiter Hand". In 1953, she helmed the costume department for the first time in Géza von Cziffra"s "Das singende Hotel". In the 1950s, she worked on the then-popular musicals and comedies as well as on the numerous WWII dramas which coincided with the rearmament of West-Germany. She also emulated a distinctively British look for nine films in the immensely successful Edgar Wallace series.

Her costume designs for the adaptations of Karl May"s Western novels became nothing less than iconic for a whole generation of movie audiences. In the 1960s, she worked on Harald Reinl"s monumental "Die Nibelungen" and Robert Siodmak"s equally lavish "Kampf um Rom" ("The Fight For Rome"), with both films featuring several thousand extras who needed to be dressed in period costumes. In the 1970s, she chose the wardrobe for the "Jerry Cotton" series and high-profile literary adaptations. From 1961 on, she also worked in television, providing an authentic and often meticulously researched look for seminal productions like "Die Pawlaks" (1982). During the shooting of the TV series "Mit Leib und Leben" in 1988, Irms Pauli died in a car accident.