Norma Tullo Collection

Full description

The Norma Tullo collection is housed in 13 boxes.  Boxes 1 to 6 contain Norma Tullo’s scrapbooks containing material dating from 1958 to 1977. These include correspondence, newspaper and magazine clippings, knitting pattern ephemera, marketing materials, photographs and promotional brochures.  Box 8 includes original photographs by various photographers, including Neil Libbert, Dieter Muller, Helmut Newton & Henry Talbot, Maurice Mead, and The Herald Sun, and one sketch. Box 9 has loose sheets formerly housed in a scrapbook, including letters, and telegrams, newspaper and magazine clippings. The David Jones’ Award for Fashion excellence sculpted by Lyndon Dadswell is held in box 10, and associated press clippings and media photographs are held in the scrapbooks. An inventory is available. A woman’s floral print dress in Tullo’s Peppinella merino wool range is also held in the collection.

Norma Tullo (1935-2019), MBE, was one of Australia’s leading fashion designers of the 1950s ─ 1970s. While she was working as a legal secretary for a Melbourne barrister, she began designing and making clothes for herself and her friends in her spare time. By the mid-1950s she had rented a room in the Metropole Arcade off Bourke Street, Melbourne, where she employed a dressmaker to help realise her designs. As her clientele grew, Tullo resigned from her secretarial position and in 1956 formally established her fashion label, Normal Tullo (1956-1977). 

Tullo created youthful fashion-forward garments for young women and teenagers, and her garments quickly became popular with the booming youth market. By 1958 she was being described as one of Australia’s leading fashion designers and had moved her work room to Collins Street. In 1962 she married businessman Brian King, who helped to expand the brand’s reach.

Tullo collaborated with leading wool and textile manufacturers to showcase their fabrics. In 1965 Tullo became the first Australian designer to be taken up by Butterick Company Inc., manufacturers of Vogue and Butterick Patterns, making her designs accessible to home dressmakers around the world.

Tullo’s international recognition was cemented in 1966 when Tokyo department store Isetan Co Ltd, known for its younger clientele, bought her entire Autumn/Winter Tullo collection, launching her fashions in Tokyo as part of an “Australia Week” promotion. This marked the beginning of license-to-manufacture agreement with Isetan, and by 1969 Tullo’s garments were sold in Isetan stores throughout Japan. Around this time, she purchased a former chocolate factory in a laneway off Bridge Road, Richmond, converting it into a showroom, warehouse and workplace; the laneway is now known as Tullo Place.

An advocate for using natural fibers ─particularly wool ─ Tullo helped promote Australian wool as a premium fabric. She won a record seven Australian Wool Board awards and an Australian Lyrebird Award. In 1970 she was awarded the inaugural David Jones Grand Award for Fashion Excellence, signalling "her leadership as Australia's most decorated designer." Appointed MBE in 1972 for services to industry, export and fashion, Norma Tullo closed her fashion label in 1977, although she later designed collections for Fletcher Jones in 1981-1982 and subsequently for Sportsgirl. 

This collection has been acquired in two lots, 0005.2017 comprises 12, 10 archive boxes, and 2 drawers. Printed posters and larger scale works are held in Boxes 2 ,11 and 12. Box 3 contains photocopies of media clippings, designs for book covers, awards, and advertisements for a variety of businesses.  Box 6 contains copies of magazines such as Stiletto, Crowd, Mondo Rock single, Letterheads. Box 9 contains audio reels for ‘en Mass Fashion’ radio show. A detailed inventory is available. The second lot 0011.2018 comprises 67 audio reels relating to En Masse radio show and fashion show promotions.