Prue Acton facts for kids
Prue Acton is a famous Australian fashion designer. She was born on April 26, 1943. In the 1960s, many people called her "Australia's golden girl of fashion." She even received an award called the OBE, which is a special honor from the British Empire.
Contents
Prue Acton's Early Life
Prue Acton was born in Benalla, a town in Victoria, Australia. She went to school at Firbank Anglican Girls' Grammar School in Melbourne.
From 1958 to 1962, Prue studied art at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. She earned a diploma in art, focusing on printed textiles. In 1966, she married Michael Charles Treloar. They had two daughters, Tiffany Leigh and Atlanta Priscilla.
Prue Acton's Amazing Fashion Career
In 1963, Prue Acton started her own fashion design business. It was located in Flinders Lane, Melbourne. By the time she was 21, her business was huge!
She was creating about 350 new designs every year. She sold around 1,000 dresses each week. Her clothes were sold in 80 stores across Australia and New Zealand.
Expanding Her Fashion Empire
As her fashion business grew, Prue Acton also created her own line of cosmetics. These makeup products were designed to go perfectly with her clothing.
In 1967, Prue made history. She was the first Australian female designer to show her clothing line in New York. This was a very big deal for Australian fashion.
By 1982, her designs were selling all over the world. Sales reached an estimated $11 million. Her clothes were sold in Australia, Japan, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Other companies also made her designs under a special agreement in America, Japan, and Germany.
Designing for the Olympics
Prue Acton also had the honor of designing uniforms for Australian Olympic teams. She created the uniforms for the athletes at three different Olympic Games:
- The 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, USA.
- The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, USA.
- The 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
From Fashion to Fine Art
Before becoming a fashion designer, Prue Acton wanted to be a painter. She said she was one of the youngest students ever at RMIT, starting at age 15.
While studying art, she made her own clothes and clothes for friends. This helped her earn pocket money. After graduating, she started her clothing business. Early in her career, she even wrote a fashion column for a magazine called Go-Set.
In the 1980s, Prue Acton decided to return to painting. She felt that fashion had become too focused on making money. She became more interested in painting.
Prue saw similarities between fashion and painting. She believed both were about "the art of what we do, of how the parts come together." She took drawing classes at Swinburne College. She also studied painting with famous artists like Clifton Pugh and Mervyn Moriarty. From 1989, Prue Acton held art exhibitions with Clifton Pugh and other artists from Dunmoochin.
Prue Acton's Awards and Honors
Prue Acton has received many awards for her amazing work in fashion:
- 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 (she was added to the Hall of Fame), 1978, 1980.
- She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 1982. This is a special award given by the British monarch for great achievements.
- Australian Fashion Awards: 1985, 1987.
In 2005, Prue Acton was honored on a special Australian postage stamp. She was featured alongside other famous Australian fashion designers. These included Collette Dinnigan, Akira Isogawa, Joe Saba, Carla Zampatti, and Jenny Bannister.
