During its early years, the day-to-day business of A. & L. Tirocchi may be reconstructed fairly well through the customer ledgers and day books. The chart below shows the breakdown of the transaction types for the years 1915-24, based on the customer ledgers. The business of the shop was split evenly between repairs, alterations, and make-overs on the one hand and custom work on the other until 1924, when Anna began to sell ready-to-wear. Unfortunately, the records are not always detailed enough to distinguish between the sale of a custom- or ready-made garment after 1924.

The emphasis on restyling and altering older apparel was typical of the period prior to the introduction of women's mass-market ready-to-wear. Custom-made clothing was expensive in terms of both money and time. The client needed to search out fabrics and trims; decide on the desired style; and be available for fittings. Garments were often restyled and altered to keep up with fashion and to prolong their useful life.

INSERT CHART of business transactions here

Anna and Laura's clients placed orders for evening, afternoon, and morning dresses, along with simpler dresses that were less occasion-specific. Suits were also commissioned, although not as often, since they were usually made by ladies' tailors, many of whom worked a few blocks away on Broad Street and in downtown Providence. Women would have their blouses, known as "waists," made by Anna and Laura. The shop's day books and correspondence indicate that most of the orders for custom garments were collaborations between Anna and her clients. A customer would choose the fabrics and trims from which the dresses would be made and discuss the style with Anna. In a letter dated December 30, 1919, Mrs. E. G. Butler of Rockville, Connecticut, wrote to Anna regarding an order for a coat and dress. The letter is fairly detailed with regard to the style of the coat, and Mrs. Butler is quite clear about what she wants it to look like. "I would like more of a dolman than a coat, but want more of a sleeve than many of them have. I would like a nice cloth, perhaps Duvetyn or something similar in a taupe shade. Of course, it would have to be made warm with wool padding or anything you thought best." In her letter she also requests Anna to make a dress for her, but is less certain about its style. In the end she decides that she will wait to see Anna so that they may discuss it together.

Mrs. Butler's letter helps to illuminate the process by which dresses were created during the early twentieth century. In the second paragraph, she refers to the completion of the lining of the dress by the next time she will visit. Until the early 1920s, the lining of the garment was the foundation on which the dress was built. Custom dressmakers, like Anna, carefully fitted the linings to their customer's measurements using dress forms padded out to the client's size. The lining was cut, most often by Anna, and the pieces pinned to the form and basted together. The client would then try on the lining to make sure the fit was proper. When this was achieved, the more costly satin or velvet fabric would be draped to form the skirt, and the bodice created using net, lace, and beaded trims. Most often a girdle or belt cinched the waist.

A photo from about 1914 of the shop at the Butler Exchange shows Anna adjusting a flower at the waist of an evening dress, the proverbial final touch [fig. 16]. The garment has a floral damask skirt drawn up at the side with a decorative band. The material used in the bodice cannot be identified, but it appears that Anna and her client had decided on an embroidered net or lace for the garment's kimono sleeves. Dressmakers, including Anna, did not focus on the cut of the garment as a fashion designer does today. Anna's creativity rested in the way that she combined fabrics and trims - satins, velvets, nets, laces, and jet and other beads - to create a whole. Anna, and often Laura, would work with the client to design the garment by actually taking the client's chosen fabric and draping it on the dress form. "They'd...put it this way, or put it this other way, and we'd do this on the back with a train or whatever," according to Anna and Laura's niece, Emily Valcarenghi Martinelli, who worked in the shop from the period when it was located at the Butler Exchange (ca. 1911-15) until 1932.