ANN COLE LOWE: A Little Known Black Pioneer That Changed Fashion Forever

Feeling Rebloggy

Designers of this caliber are undeniably vital to this country's history, and through their work, shape how we view some of our most important cultural figures. Their names aren't just embedded into historical narrative, though; they also pave the way for the next generation.

     This is certainly true for Ann Cole Lowe, the first internationally-recognized African American fashion designer, who carved out a space for herself through talent alone in the Jim Crow-era United States.     Little has been written about Ann — it's hard to find much beyond an Ebony magazine profile from 1966 and a paperback biography — but this month, an exhibit at the just-opened National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. highlights her work, alongside other "trailblazers, innovators, visionaries, and history makers." This is her story.

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     Born in the small town of Clayton, Alabama in 1898, Ann was the great-granddaughter of a skilled seamstress slave and white plantation owner. Her mixed-race grandmother, Georgia Tompkins, was given clemency from slavery after being purchased by a freedman named General Cole. Ann learned to sew from Georgia and from her mother, who made dresses for Southern society women.     One skill the women perfected was trapunto quilting on garments, a technique that adds another dimension to fabric, creating a more full, elegant finish. Ann also had a penchant for making small flowers out of satin and building bras into her dresses...
     Her shop was a haven for society's upper crust, with a framed photo wall dedicated to the women whose gowns she made for their most important life events. Sketches for the dresses of debutants, brides, and gala invitees were laid in piles in the intimate shop.     The gowns she made were stunning enough to earn her the Couturier of the Year plaque in 1961, and get her listed in the National Social Directory and the Who's Who in American Women list.     Her dresses were also sold in Neiman Marcus, Henri Bendel, and Saks, in addition to her own boutique.     It is said that her most famous gown, the dress Jacqueline Bouvier wore to marry John F. Kennedy in 1953, cost $700 — even though a freak flooding accident put her in the red by $2,200, something Kennedy had no idea about until years later. In 2016, that would be equivalent to a $13,000 loss...

https://www.racked.com/2016/9/30/13064294/fashion-designer-ann-lowe