Hello, Beauties🌸 Today’s post is Ann Lowe, Another Little-Known Fashion History Visionary.
I’m going strong with my Black History theme for this February. In a recent post, I focused on another hidden fashion figure, Zelda Wynn Valdes. That uncredited fashion career sparked my renewed interest in other noteworthy designers. This time, Ann Cole Lowe, born in the small town of Clayton, Alabama, in 1898, was the daughter and granddaughter of accomplished dressmakers.
Her grandmother, Georgia Cole, an enslaved person, made clothes for the plantation mistress before becoming a free woman in 1960. Ann’s mother, Jane Cole, an expert seamstress and embroidered, died when she was 16. Learning from both women, Lowe became skilled at creating intricate fabric flower adornments that would later become one of her signatures.
Before Ann’s mother died, the ladies moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where they ran a successful dressing-making business specializing in formal wear for wealthy socialites.
According to online sources, at the time of her mother’s death, Lowe’s mother was working on four ball gowns for the First Lady of Alabama. Ann successfully finished the dresses using the skills she learned from her mother and grandmother.
Fast forward to two failed marriages, a son and an adopted daughter, Anne moved to New York City. She enrolled at S.T. Taylor Design School. At the school, it was during segregation that Lowe was required to attend classes in a room alone. After graduating in 1919, Ms. Lowe moved to Tampa, Florida. The following year, she opened her first dress salon, “Ann Cohen.”
In 1928, Lowe returned to New York City and obtained a design job with Saks Fifth Avenue, becoming one of their sought-after designers. She also worked for Hattie Carnegie. From there, she opened her first shop in Harlem and then onto a prestigious Madison Avenue location.
Did you know Ann Lowe created Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding dress for her bridal attendants in September 1953? Lowe never received credit for creating the wedding dress. I know, I didn’t.
Lowe’s dress for Jacqueline Bouvier consisted of fifty yards of ivory silk taffeta with interwoven bands tucking forming the bodice. Similar ticking in large circular designs swept around the entire skirt, according to Mulvaney. The gown cost $500 (approximately $5000 today.)
Jackie Kennedy is said to have told people that her dress, made by a “colored woman dressmaker,” and Lowe, mentioned by name in the Washington Post where fashion editor Nina Hyde simply wrote, “…the dress, designed by a Negro, Ann Lowe.”
Anne worked as a commissioned designer for some of the dominant houses in the Fashion District. The houses took all the credit, and Ann’s name was not mentioned. She continued to work and design for many high-society families, such as the Du Ponts, Roosevelts, and the Vanderbilts. In 1947, Ann designed Actress Olivia de Haviland’s dress when she received her Oscar for “To Each His Own.”
I discovered Ann Lowe’s work on my first visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in December 2016. And a Christmas trip later that same year to New York City to the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Black Fashion Designers Exhibit.
Ms. Lowe told Ebony Magazine that, at one point in her career, she could “turn out an average of 1,000 gowns a year, had a staff of 35, and grossed $300,000 annually.”
Arthur Lee, Ann’s only son, died in a car accident. She moved to Queens to live with her adopted daughter, Ruth.
Ann’s failing health due to being partially blind due to glaucoma and her Internal Revenue woes for non-payment of taxes forced her to declare bankruptcy in 1963.
Lowe lived with her daughter, Ruth, in Queens for the last five years of her life. She died in 1981 at the age of 82. She was pretty much unknown and broke.
Her Legacy:
♥ A collection of five of Anne Lowe’s designs is part of permanent archives at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
♥ Three are on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture
♥ Several Gowns were included in the Black Fashion Exhibit at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in December 2016.
♥ Two children’s books: Fancy Party Gowns: The Story of Fashion Designer Ann Cole Lowe and Something to Prove: A Biography of Ann Lowe, America’s Forgotten Designer
How about you, familiar with fashion history visionary Ann Lowe? If yes, do share in the comments section.
As always, thank you for reading. Have a fabulous week.
