Fletcher, Marion (1910 - 2012)

Born: 6 December 1910
Dalkeith, Scotland
Died: 22 April 2012
Melboure, Victoria, Australia
Occupation: Art Curator and Instructor
Summary: Marion Fletcher was born in Scotland in 1910 and completed a Diploma in Design at Edinburgh College of Art (1928-1932) and art teacher training at Edinburgh Provincial Training College (1932-1933). She taught design at the Edinburgh College of Art from 1935 to 1942 and worked as a draughtswoman with the Air Ministry and Ministry of Fuel & Power during WWII. She migrated to Australia in 1946 to join her family in Melbourne, finding work with textile designer Vida Turner. By 1950, she began her long association with Melbourne Technical College teaching needlework and embroidery. Over the next 18 years, she advanced from Instructress to Senior Lecturer by 1964. Alongside her teaching, she actively exhibited her textile designs and embroidery, earning the Grafton Award for textile design in 1953. In 1962, she was appointed Honorary Curator of Costume at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), and in 1968, she became the Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts (Textiles). In 2013, Fletcher's family donated her archive to the RMIT Design Archives..

Fletcher, M., Costume in Australia, 1788-1901, Oxford University Press, 1984. Details

Jocic, L., 'Marion Fletcher (1910-2012): Curator and Costume Historian', RMIT Design Archives Journal, vol. 4, no. 2, 2014, pp. 5-13. Details

Design Prize Winners, The Sydney Morning Herald, New South Wales, 22 September 1953, 8 pp, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18388984. Details

Prepared by: Miranda Francis

Created: 23 October 2026, Last modified: 28 October 2026