Prue Acton, OBE (born 1943) is an Australian fashion designer, and is often referred to as Australia's "golden girl" of fashion' during the 60's.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Awards 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Early life

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 textiles at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

[edit] Career

In 1963 she established her own fashion design business in Flinders Lane, Melbourne, and by age 21 Acton was turning over 350 designs a year and selling an average of 1000 dresses a week through eighty 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, USA, Canada and New Zealand and her designs made under licence in America, Japan and Germany.

Acton also designed the Australian Olympic uniforms (1978, Lake Placid, USA); (1984, Los Angeles); (1988, Seoul).

[edit] 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, she 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.

[edit] References

• CyberFibres Biographical Entry for Prue Acton
• MilesAgo Profile for Prue Acton
• Transcript of Prue Acton interview with George Negus - 29/04/2004

[edit] External links

"Prue Acton's View of Light" article for ABC South East, by Bill Brown [1] includes post-designer life as an exhibiting artist.

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