27-06-2025
Ross Willis relives memories modelling suits in the 1950s
At the back of a Lake Macquarie office, hidden under a stamp and coin collection, lies a time capsule of sorts.
It's a collection of magazines dating back to the late 1950s, which feature a fresh-faced 18-year-old Ross Willis modelling for various Newcastle suit tailors.
When Mr Willis rediscovered them during a spring clean more than 65 years later, he showed his daughter Stephanie.
"When he said to me he was 18, I just couldn't believe it," Ms Willis said.
Ms Willis said it was a "time warp" seeing her now 85-year-old father modelling.
"It's like what my kids once said to me: you forget your parents have had a whole life before you even came along."
In 1958, Mr Willis was picked from a group of university students to model for a handful of suit-tailoring businesses in Newcastle.
"I think they looked for the best-looking people that would be able to be models," he said.
"There must have been about 10 of us [university students] altogether who came up and did shoots around the place."
Mr Willis was studying at Avondale University, known as Avondale College at the time, for his "leaving certificate", the equivalent of a Higher School Certificate today.
Never having modelled before, he jumped at the chance.
"Looking back on the photos, it's a thrill," he said.
"Though I was paid nothing at all.
In the 1950s, dozens of suit-tailoring businesses lined Hunter Street in Newcastle.
Mr Willis said that was a sign of the times, when men wore suits for regular outings.
His daughter was curious to find out if any of them were still open.
She found just one.
Opened in Newcastle in 1908, Rundle Tailoring is a fourth-generation family business still operating in the CBD.
It was one of Australia's largest suit manufacturers from the 1950s until the 90s.
"I said [to Dad], 'Next time I visit, I'll take you down there' and a few months later we did it," Ms Willis said.
The pair was given a tour of the facility, bringing back a range of memories.
"It amazed me that the tailoring is still done there," Mr Willis said.
Shop owner Andrew Rundle said it was the only suit tailor left in the region.
"Now, there's us … there hasn't been another tailor that can make a suit from scratch in this area for 20, 30 years."
Rundle Tailoring has had its ups and downs, surviving the Great Depression, World War II, tariffs and COVID-19.
"The history of the business is so rich," Mr Rundle said.
"This [the magazine] was something I didn't even know about until Ross came in and we discussed it.
