Prue Acton

Prue Acton, (born 26 April 1943) is an Australian fashion designer, often referred to as "Australia's golden girl of fashion" during the 1960s.

Early life

Prudence Leigh Acton was born in Benalla, Victoria and educated at Firbank Anglican Girls' Grammar School in Melbourne. Between 1958 and 1962 she completed a Diploma of Art majoring in Printed Textiles at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. She married Michael Charles Treloar in 1966. On 19 September 1966 they had their first child, Tiffany Leigh Treloar and, a few years later, they had their second child, Atlanta Priscilla Treloar.

Career In 1963 Acton established her own fashion design business in Flinders Lane, Melbourne, and by age 21 she was turning over 350 designs a year and selling an average of 1,000 dresses a week through 80 outlets in Australia and New Zealand. As her fashion business took off, Acton also began to develop her own range of cosmetics to complement the range. In 1967, she became the first Australia female designer to mount a show of her own range of garments in New York. By 1982 the estimated world-wide sales of her designs were $11 million with garments sold in Australia, Japan, United States, Canada and New Zealand and her designs made under licence in America, Japan, and Germany.

Acton also designed the Australian Olympic uniforms for 1980, Lake Placid, US); 1984, Los Angeles; and 1988, Seoul.

Acton initially wanted to become a traditional artist – a painter – before focusing on fashion. "At 15 I went to RMIT; I was one of the youngest ever to go to RMIT." Acton says about her art studies that led up to her fashion career, "And during that time I was making my own clothes and making clothes for friends and that's how I was making pocket money". Maree Menzel Myra Jane Sinn

Awards Australian Wool Board Wool Fashion Awards, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971 David Jones Awards for Fashion Excellence, 1971, 1972, 1978 FIA (Fashion Industry of Australia) Lyrebird Awards 1971, 1973 (Hall of Fame), 1978, 1980 Awarded OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), 1982 Australian Fashion Awards, 1985, 1987

In 2005, Acton was honoured on a commemorative Australian postage stamp, along with other Australian fashion designers, Collette Dinnigan, Akira Isogawa, Joe Saba, Carla Zampatti and fellow RMIT alum Jenny Bannister.