Letters in the Tirocchi Archive offer a unique picture of relations between the Tirocchi shop and its customers. Most were written by clients, but a few are copies of letters written by Anna. They reveal relationships that range from the hostile and occasionally threatening through the businesslike and matter-of-fact to the friendly and even affectionate. The obvious caveat in using these letters as research materials is that most of them come from clients who lived or were traveling outside of Providence. They give us only the rarest glimpses of the more frequent dressmaker-client contacts over the telephone or in the house on Broadway. Such shortcomings aside, this correspondence constitutes the finest and fullest collection of letters to a single dressmaker in the United States. Wendy Gamber, author of the definitive study of custom dressmaking, used letters found in a search of clients' papers and was unable to construct the broad picture of one establishment that the Tirocchi Archive offers.(14)

The letters show that the relationships between the Tirocchi sisters and their clients were fraught with potential for sharp conflict and bitter recriminations, but also were graced with mutual satisfaction and deep gratification. Some reveal what appears to have been a genuine friendship between Anna and a client. Vacationing in Florida in 1940, Mira Hoffman sent Anna a gift; Anna's chatty thank-you letter bespeaks real feeling between the two, although not without a hint of flattery on Anna's part when she ended, "Please give us the pleasure to see you look twenty years younger when you return to Providence." Satisfied customers' letters reflected the pleasure they took in their Tirocchi clothing: Mrs. E. G. Butler wrote, "I know that you will be interested to know that my two gowns arrived safely on Monday and I was delighted to receive them. I have not yet tried them on but doubt not that they will be alright. Thank you so much for sending them."(15)

Clients were especially generous in their praise when the clothing was for a special occasion such as a wedding, and their letters indicate that when things went well between dressmaker and client, it could be gratifying to both. Alice Trowbridge wrote in the warmest terms to the Tirocchi sisters after her daughter Ruth's wedding: "I take great pleasure in sending you the enclosed check and wish you both to know that Mr. Trowbridge and I both appreciate the attention you showed us and the pleasure you evidently took in your work for our daughter, and we feel that your charges are very fair indeed." The Trowbridge wedding was not the only one for which Anna extended herself. Fall River bride Dorothy Newton thanked Anna for her gift of velvet for her wedding slippers. Weddings apparently created the ideal conditions for mutual satisfaction: elaborate clothing enhanced the pleasure of the occasion for the bride and her family at the same time that it gave the Tirocchi sisters an opportunity to showcase their talents.(16)