Hey Stitchers! We are so excited that our good friend and 22x(!) award winning podcaster Dominic Lawson has shared this beautifully crafted history of Ann Lowe with us as a Black History Month leap day treat. Black is America is one of my favorite pods so take a listen and when you're done, click the link and check out the rest of his episodes!

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Anne Lowe was a pioneering African American fashion designer who dressed high society elites in the early to mid 20th century. We learn about her early life in Alabama, training in New York, moving to Harlem during the Renaissance, and most famously designing Jacqueline Kennedy's wedding dress.

Timeline:

• Early Life & Training
• Born in Clayton, AL in 1898
• Learned sewing from her mother and grandmother
• Moved to NYC in 1917 to formally train at S.T. Taylor Design School
• Segregated at school but still excelled and finished early
• Building Her Brand
• Opened successful dress salon in Tampa, FL from 1919-1928
• Saved $20,000 to move to Harlem, NYC during the Renaissance
• Quickly built clientele among NYC elites and socialites
• Designed Olivia de Havilland's Oscars dress in 1947
• Peak Years
• Client list included Rockefellers, Roosevelts, duPonts and more
• Hired to design 1953 wedding dress for Jacqueline Kennedy
• Water pipe disaster destroyed original dress 10 days before wedding
• Remade it in 5 days with help of employees and community
• Late Career Struggles
• Focused more on artistry than business side, fell into debt
• Wealthy clients anonymously paid off $13k in back taxes she owed
• Died in 1981 at age 82 after inspiring new generation of designers

Key Quote: "I love my clothes and I'm not interested in sewing for café society or social climbers. I sew for the families of the Social Register." - Anne Lowe

Impact: Lowe's elegant designs broke racial barriers in high fashion. She paved the way for future Black designers through her perseverance and excellence.

Subscribe, review & learn more at www.blackisamericapodcast.com

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Ayeshia Smith

@ayeshia.apparel on Instagram

Ayeshia 's Website

Ayeshia 's Facebook page

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Lisa Woolfork 0:10

Hello Stitchers! Welcome to Stitch Please, the official podcast of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. I'm your host, Lisa Woolfork. I'm a fourth generation sewing enthusiast, with more than 20 years of sewing experience. I am looking forward to today's conversation, so sit back, relax and get ready to get your stitch together!

Lisa Woolfork 0:35

Hey friends, hey! It's Lisa, from Black Women Stitch and the Stitch Please podcast. Happy Leap Year, Black History Month, and I've got a special treat for you today here on the Stitch Please feed. You might recall we had an episode about Ann Lowe a few weeks ago and talked about her as a sewist, designer, and a couturier. Now I want to introduce you to a friend, colleague and award winning podcaster, Dominic Lawson, who has a fantastic show called Black is America. And this is our opportunity to learn about Ann Lowe in a larger historical context, so I hope you will listen to the episode and enjoy it as much as I did! And after you listen, I want you to follow the links in the show notes and subscribe and listen to the other episodes, because it's a really great podcast. Alright, that's enough from me. Dominic, take it away!

Dominic Lawson 1:25

Black culture and creativity are as American as apple pie and baseball. From the TikTok creators of today to our music, Black culture has always decided what is cool here in the US and around the world. And when it comes to fashion design, that is still true. Kanye West and Rihanna may be household names, but the late Virgil Abloh, who served as Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton, and Tracy Reese, who has dressed A-listers such as Michelle Obama and Regina King, are also defining not only what is worn in pop culture, but also on red carpets and galas put on by heads of state. But if you think this is a new occurrence, then I have quite the story for you, but first, I need to invite you to a wedding. Let me just grab my invitation here. Okay, there it is. Mr. And Mrs. Hugh Dudley Auchincloss request the honor of your presence at the marriage of Mrs. Auchincloss's daughter, Jacqueline Bouvier, to the honorable John Fitzgerald Kennedy, United States Senate, on Saturday, the 12th of September, at 11 o'clock; St. Mary's Church, Spring Street; Newport, Rhode Island. This wedding has a Who's Who of the day and is considered the social event of the season. Vogue Magazine will go on to call this wedding "truly legendary". But anybody who goes to a wedding knows that the dress is the most important part of the ceremony. As Jacqueline Bouvier comes down the aisle, the dress is an instant hit. It's a beautiful piece of ivory tissue silk, with a portrait neckline, fitted bodice, and a buffon skirt embellished with bands of more than 50 yards of flounces. A rose point lace veil, worn first by her Grandmother Lee, was draped from a tiara of lace in orange blossoms. Many would have thought that this dress was designed by Christian Dior or Cristobal Balenciaga, the top designers of the day, due to the bride and groom's families' wealth and connections. Not even close. This dress, which was the beginning stages of Americans knowing Jackie Kennedy as a fashion icon, was designed by an African American woman, Ann Lowe. This third-generation fashion designer dressed many of high society's elite and is regarded as the fashion world's best-kept secret. That is because Ann Lowe, just like many of her pieces she created, was truly an American original. We come from innovators, heroes, and royalty. We are our ancestors' greatest hope. We face many challenges, but we mold that adversity into our greatest strength. We are the glue that holds the nation together and allows it to flourish. Welcome to Black is America, the podcast that highlights little-known African American figures and stories that make our history come to life. I'm your host, Dominic Lawson. Episode Two, Ann Lowe: An American Original.

Dominic Lawson 4:51

I first heard the story of Ann Lowe a few years ago. It might have been during Black History Month or some other occasion. To be honest, I heard more about her work than I did her name. I remember it being a really cool story, because what I mentioned at the top of the show. Now, if you know me personally, then you know I am not a person who follows fashion trends or anything like that. But as a person who does love to follow politics, I was very familiar with the Kennedy name and how Jackie Kennedy was seen as the First Lady with quite the style. But when I decided to create Black is America, I told a few friends about it. And one of them was Chutney Young, who brought Ann Lowe to my attention. It was then I thought, "Hmm, I think I can do something with this. So you mean to tell me there was this Black woman that created the dress for the person seen by many in the early '60s as a fashion icon?" So after some preliminary research, I was like, "You know what? We should absolutely feature her on Black is America! "However, I said it before, fashion is not my thing. If you see me out here in these streets, then you know I'm Team Hoodie, Team T-shirt, and Team Jeans all day. But to make sure I put the proper respect on Titi and her legacy, I found not one but two people to help tell her story. Because for them, Ann's journey has a deeper meaning.

Ayeshia Smith 6:22

I want to say it may have been about two years ago, 'cause I actually have her as my screensaver on my laptop!

Dominic Lawson 6:28

Ayeshia Smith 6:47

So I wanted to know more about Black designers, especially, you know, Black women designers, who basically paved the way for designers like me. And that's how I found out about it. I had to take, you know, I wanted–– did my own research on her.

Elizabeth 7:00

Now, Ayeshia hits us from the runway side of things, which is a very unique perspective. But for this episode, I wanted to take it to the classroom and present the academia side of Ann Lowe's journey.

Elizabeth Way 7:12

So I am a fashion historian, and I studied fashion history during my master's program at NYU, and we learned about all different kinds of designers. But it wasn't until my internship, a year in, at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, that I heard about Ann Lowe in any capacity.

Dominic Lawson 7:30

This is Elizabeth Way, Associate Museum Curator at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and she explains how she first heard about Titi Ann.

Elizabeth Way 7:41

Some of the first research that was done on the Black Fashion Museum Collection, which they had acquired. And my supervisor Elaine Nichols, who's still an amazing curator at the Smithsonian sent me to work researching their files, their kind of material culture, and that was the first time I'd ever heard of Ann Lowe. And I was completely blown away by how prominent she was, how important her clients were, and the fact that a year into graduate-level research and fashion, I'd never heard of her.

Dominic Lawson 8:05

Now, both Ayshia and Elizabeth have been in fashion for a long time. But to provide context of just how important it is to highlight Ann Lowe, I asked Elizabeth just how far back and how extensive her view of the fashion world to have never heard of Ann Lowe.

Elizabeth Way 8:22

I've been interested in fashion since I was a kid. I read Vogue cover to cover since I was 12/13. I studied fashion design as an undergrad at the University of Delaware, where I also had some fashion history, and I also worked in the industry as a pattern maker. So I did have a pretty extensive background, both in fashion history and in fashion practice, and again, no exposure to Lowe at all.

Dominic Lawson 8:42

Elizabeth Keckley was born enslaved in Virginia, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, 1818, and she learned two very important skills from her mother. She learned dressmaking, and she also learned to read and write. And her family was torn apart in the way that so many enslaved families were. Her father was sold away, and she was actually–– the man she thought was her father was separate–– she was separated from. She learned that much later that her owner, Colonel Burrell, was actually her father. And so she was–– because she was so highly skilled, she traveled with her half-brothers and sisters to different locations. So from Virginia, as a teenager, she moved to Hillsboro, North Carolina. And in her memoir, she talks about cruel treatment that she faced from her owners at that time, but also her dressmaking skills, and how it really helped set her apart. She was called upon for local weddings, to create the dresses, and it was a way that she could assert her independence, practice her skills, and really, I think, serve as a lifeline, because she was able to exercise her creativity. She moves with another Burrell family member to St. Louis, Missouri. And in this place, it's a liminal space. Even though Missouri is a slave state, she's able to travel to a free state, and at one point, she was supporting this entire family, this white family, with her needle. So she had exposure to a more sophisticated clientele. St. Louis had a lot of connections to New Orleans and had a direct line, kind of, to Paris fashion. And so she really built all of these relationships with these elite white women. And it's from them that she actually borrows the money to buy her and her son's freedom. She stays in St. Louis for five years, earning all the money to pay them back. I believe it was $1,200. So if we think about what that would have been in the 1840s––

Let's do the math here. Let me just here (calculator sounds), dah dah dah, count for inflation, carry the one, and voila! That comes out to $42,540. And that would make sense. But unfortunately, when you look at Keckley as a commodity, and not as a person, she is pretty valuable, especially when she is supporting an entire family, as Elizabeth Way suggested. But once Keckley buys her freedom, where does she go from there? Let's get back to Elizabeth.

She moves east. So she starts in Baltimore, she thinks a little bit about teaching, but she goes down to Washington DC, and she really establishes herself as the city's top dressmaker. She would have been called a mantua maker, and the clientele that she served ran the political gamut. For example, one of her earliest clients and most prominent clients, was Varina Davis. And so she was the wife of Jefferson Davis; Keckley visited them in their home while he was plotting secession, and then she went on to be Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker. And they weren't–– she wasn't just her dressmaker, they were actually very close friends. And they did have a falling out later in her career, which–– she was doing her best to help Mary Todd Lincoln after the assassination, and it backfired on her. But she went on to teach at Wilberforce University in Ohio. So she had this long and fascinating life in which we see her exercise this agency that so many Black women are denied, or that so many Black women's agency has gone unrecorded. So the fact that she not only wrote her autobiography, but also we have accent gowns in the Smithsonian, in other institutions, things that she made. She was able to leave her mark on history.

And that history would lay the groundwork for Lowe. As a kid, Ann would be in the shop with her mother and grandmother, making beautiful embroidered pieces from the scraps left over from the dresses that were made in the business. But life would soon accelerate for Ann. In 1912, at the age of 14, she dropped out of school and married Lee Cohen. And they would eventually have a son together and name him Arthur Lee. In addition to that, another moment would force Ann to grow up quickly in her personal and professional life. When Ann was 16, her mother suddenly dies. Her grandmother had passed away years ago. Ann's mother was the head of the business and was creating gowns for the First Lady of Alabama at the time of her passing. The order is four gowns short of being completed. So imagine this: a 16-year-old Ann Lowe, her mother has just died, and the family business is probably on the verge of collapse. But Ann would muster up something inside of her. It's something our ancestors have always called upon, when times have gotten rough. Call it indomitable will, determination, or whatever superlative you like, but whatever it is, it ignites something in Ann, and she gets to work. I'm sure there is a deadline that she has to meet. Remember, this is the first time that Ann has taken the lead on a project. I'm sure part of her is nervous, scared. Remember, she's also grieving, but clearly she focuses on the task at hand. Now, I don't have any details that can confirm, but I imagine she works day and night, cutting, sewing and more. The years of watching and learning from her grandmother and mother are paying off. But what we can confirm is that Ann absolutely comes through in the clutch and delivers the gowns, thereby establishing her the new head of the business. They say the difference between cockiness and confidence is evidence. For Ann Lowe, this will be the first piece of evidence of marking her path, whether she knows it or not, as a rock star in the fashion world.

Ann knew from a young age what she wanted for her life, and that was "to make beautiful gowns for people of the social register." That's a direct quote from Ann later in life. But for now, Ann knows she needs more training to get better. With her grandmother and mother now gone, she needs to find a way to improve her skill. So in 1917, she makes a set of audacious moves. The first one was that she divorces Lee Cohen. It wasn't working out anyway, because Lee wanted a quote "traditional wife", and I guess a trailblazing businesswoman in fashion doesn't exactly fit that mold. Ann takes her son, Arthur Lee, and moves to New York to enroll in the S.T. Taylor Design School. It was a really good Fashion Institute, but there is a slight problem for Ann: the school was segregated. Now while it was good for Ann to be enrolled, the fact that she will be separated from her classmates will mean that Ann would not get the same quality of instruction as her white classmates. You would think that would set her up to fail, and maybe it would be a way for her being cut out of the fashion program altogether. But you have to remember, Auntie has been about this sewing and creating fashion life since she was six, fostered by her mother and grandmother. And when her mother died, Ann picked up the baton and became the head of the family business. And then I'm reminded of something Charlie Edmonds, music instructor at Indiana University, has said about us, as a people, back on Episode Two of Black is America during Season One, when we featured Marian Anderson. Cearly it also applied to Ann Lowe as well.

We all learned that this is just what we do as people. Even though we run into all sorts of things, systemically and overtly, we're gonna make our way through; we're gonna do it. It may not look initially like everybody else's, or like the standard, but we're gonna make it the standard. Because we've already–– we just kind of have that hustle in us. That's my view of it. We've seen too many of our ancestors overcome too many things to not think that we can't do it too. Even if it's not the standard right away, even if it's not technically correct right away, it will be.

Auntie would be in the classrooms by herself; however, she would be within earshot of the instruction that was given. Doesn't matter, though, because Ann thrives in school. When she would finish her assignments, her teachers would show her work as the standard to the rest of the class, and that they had to achieve that standard. Auntie was so good in school that she actually finished in half the time. And speaking of setting the standard, Elizabeth Way, Curator at the Fashion Institute of Technology, speaks of this long history of this in Black America, and how it dates back to our continent of origin.

That's really interesting because there's a lot of different kinds of theories about Black style, because Black style is obviously so influential, it's so creative, it's so innovative. And there are some scholars who can–– they hypothesize that there's this link back to West and Central Africa, because this area was such a dynamic place. There were so many cultures coming together, so many languages. And it was just–– it bred this idea of adaptability. And when enslaved people were brought to the United States, they had to adapt to survive, because it's not just about feeding yourself and keeping yourself warm; you have to have creative outlets or your spirit dies. And so fashion is a way that they can do this. Stuart Hall talks about how our bodies are the only material that we have. And so that's what we use to be creative, whether it's through dress or music or dance. So I do think that there are threads of all of this. And of course, individuality is so important as well, individual circumstances. We don't want to essentialize Black experiences. But this idea of being able to adapt and be creative, it does seem to attach itself to Black communities, all around the world. And that might also be true of so many different oppressed communities. But certainly black Americans have used fashion to their advantage, and in ways that aren't always understood and are vilified until mainstream society kind of picks it up.

So after graduating in 1919, Ann and her son moved down to Tampa, Florida, and opened a dress salon there called Annie Cohen. It is an instant success, because of course it is. And she keeps the same business model that her mother and grandmother set in Alabama, only catering to those in high society. It's clearly a successful business model, because Ann manages to save about $20,000. That's about $350,000, adjusted for today. Now Ann would get married again to Caleb West, but it shares the same fate as her first marriage and did not last very long. Ann later will be asked about this, and she would go on to say quote, "My second husband left me. He said he wanted a 'real wife', not one that was forever jumping out of bed to sketch dresses." Now things are going really well in Florida, and Auntie probably could have just done fine for the rest of her days in the Sunshine State, but clearly she had bigger plans. She wanted to keep making dresses for those in high society. And while Tampa was nothing to scoff at, it's not exactly the first place you think of when it comes to art, culture, and high fashion. So in 1928, Ann sets out for the bright lights of a city she is actually quite familiar with. New York City, "the concrete jungle". What's that saying? "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." If Ann could get into the circle of the elites here in New York City, then she would be set up and practically write her own ticket. Now she moves to New York City during a very interesting time. From 1910 to 1940, this is known as the first wave of The Great Migration. This is where many African Americans from down south would move up north for better jobs and opportunity. This is also during one of the most important times in American history, a time when Black artistry becomes fully embedded in American culture. A time when Uncle Langston wrote of A Dream Deferred, and when Josephine Baker became the first woman to star in a major motion picture film. I am of course referring to the Harlem Renaissance. This era of Black excellence marks the rise of what we know as the culture coming into the American consciousness, but also the increase of Black intellectualism, as we see the ascension of A, Philip Randolph, and the growth of Black America's middle class. That combination marks the early stages of the civil rights movement we start to see in the 1950s and 1960s. Now during this period, Ann moves to Harlem. (Hear knocking sound) I'm sorry, hold on for a second.

Yeah?

Wait, wait, wait, wait. So you're just not going to tell him that "other thing" when it comes to Josephine Baker?

I'm sorry, y'all. That's my wife and executive producer of Black is America, Kenda Lawson. Kenda, what other thing?

You know, the OTHER cool thing about her. Your daughter just did a whole wax museum project about it. You know what? Out of the way, I'll tell it!

Uh, okay, y'all. I guess I'm stepping out for a second. I'll be right back. Hopefully. (Muffled) Trying to do this stuff, man, and you all interruptin' people.

Yeah, well, some history has to be told. All right. I couldn't let y'all leave without knowing the best part of the Josephine Baker story. Okay, remember when Dominic just breezed past Josephine Baker earlier? Well, did you know that she was a spy during World War Two? That's the part he forgot to mention. That's the beauty of being the EP. I could step in and make it right. Instead of going back to the Harlem Renaissance, we actually need to fast forward to abouuuuut here. It's June 1940, and the Axis powers have closed in on Paris. Auntie Josephine, while born in St. Louis, is in Paris where without, let's just say certain barriers, she found super stardom in entertainment. She was recruited by Jacques Abtey to be a spy, because entertainers were pretty much able to come and go without suspicion. Besides, who would suspect a Black woman of being able to smuggle secrets from the enemy, while the Germans, the Italians, and Japanese learn the hard way that we always got the tea. Josephine would attend Italian and Japanese diplomatic parties, learn about their troop movements, and then go to the bathroom, write it down, and pin it to her undergarments. Then she would smuggle the documents to General Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French government, who has been in exile in London at this point. Now keep in mind, Sis is still touring and performing on a regular basis. At one time when she was on tour, she hid pictures of German troop movements under her dress, along with other messages, written in–– get this–– invisible ink! I'm telling you, she was a legit spy out here in these espionage streets. Now, Auntie Josephine also worked to secure passports for Eastern European Jews to help them escape while in Northern Africa. She would later be awarded, in 1961, France's two highest military honors, the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor. Now, if you're curious why she did all of this, look no further than the December 1973 edition of Ebony Magazine, where she said, quote, "Of course I wanted to do all I could to aid France, my adopted country and overriding consideration. The thing that drove me as strongly as did patriotism, was my violent hatred of discrimination in any form." Say what you want. James Bond is cool and all, but I'll take a smart sister with mission any day of the week. Okay, y'all, I better give Dominic back his microphone. Dominic, down. All right, come back and talk to your people so we can finish the story of Titi Ann.

Are you sure? Can I really get back to it?

Yeah, just don't be holding out on the audience like that. Come on, now.

All right.

Okay, let me get back in here. Back where I belong. You know what? My bad, y'all. You know, sometimes there's just so much history to cover that a few things just kind of slip through the cracks, here and there. But that is why you have a good EP, and even better, a great wife. You need them to have your back. So where was I? Ah, yes. Ann Lowe has just moved to an apartment in Harlem, in 1928. And it will be there where she will begin to build her clientele. It's a business model that worked back in Alabama and Florida, so of course, why wouldn't it work in New York City?

She came from a very successful, very stable business that she had created in Tampa. And she really wanted to exceed in the fashion capital. She wanted high profile clients, she wanted unlimited, kind of, creativity in her fashion practice. And so she actually establishes a series of shops from that time until her last shops in the late 1960s. And she always has to have white partners, because she wants to be located in a place where her clients can find her and feel comfortable. And she'd always catered to white clients because these were, for the most part, people who could afford what she did. And so she had shops on Madison Avenue, on Lexington Avenue––

Elizabeth also points out something that has plagued many fashion designers and honestly, many black creatives. And Ann was no exception.

In terms of business, she wasn't as interested in the business aspects of her work, as a creative. And we find this across history, fashion history, Yves Saint Laurent, Charles James, all these creatives aren't necessarily focused on the numbers.

Unfortunately, that's going to come back to haunt Ann, but we will get to that later. But for now, this Black woman is placing herself in the middle of the action, the fashion world. She didn't ask for permission. Titi Ann just made it happen. This seems pretty significant to me. I mean, she did have some help. But I mean, this Black woman is making moves like these, in the 1940s and '50s, which is why I asked Elizabeth Way about the impact Ann was making. I mean, she was making these pieces for the societal elite. But in some ways, did that make her their equal?

She always had business partners, and she's had different shops all over the Upper East Side. In terms of what that signified was that she was where–– the center of the action. She was where the type of fashion that she made, which was for elite clients, was one-on-one, was couture–– that was centered in New York City. And this is apart from the ready-to-wear industry, the off-the-rack, kind of, clothing that is happening more downtown. She's working in a really different kind of sphere of fashion as a couturier. So to be able to have a shop on Madison Avenue, a place where she can invite her very wealthy clients in to a beautifully furnished kind of space, where she can offer them tea, where she can show them sketches. She was interacting with them on their level.

Things are going well. She's making a name for herself, and she's being respected in the fashion capital of the world. And then a unique opportunity would arise. Olivia de Havilland, throughout the 1940s, is a rising star in Hollywood. After receiving the Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in a little film called Gone With the Wind. And Olivia will overcome personal family struggles and Hollywood politics. And by Hollywood politics, I mean sexism. She overcomes these things, and she is nominated for the 1947 Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the movie To Each His Own. So anyone who watches award shows these days are very familiar with the whole affair with the Red Carpet and what the stars are wearing. And you can probably argue that the Academy Awards is the granddaddy of them all, when it comes to award events. And so Ann would have the honor of creating Olivia's dress. And you already know Titi did her thing! It's a pale blue gown with a pleat flowers down the bodice on a full skirt. The strapless sweetheart neckline is trimmed with tiny ruffles. Olivia complements the look with a single string of pearls around her neck. According to howstuffworks.com, it's considered one of the greatest dresses in the history of the Academy Awards. It even garnered the attention of a future First Lady, but we're not there just yet. In the meantime, this is great exposure for Ann. Her dress is being featured on the Red Carpet, and if Olivia wins, many of the social register, Ann Lowe's type of clients, will be dropping serious coins to get their hands on a dress made by the Alabama native...or at least it should. So as we sit down at our seats, let's see what happens. Oh, goodness gracious. Olivia wins the award, which means this is also a win for Ann Lowe. Her dress is about to be the talk of the country. Women of the social register are about to inquire about this amazing piece. And when they purchase and look at the tag, they will know that the original piece is made by Sonia Rosenberg? I tell you what, I guess beautiful gowns and rock and roll have something in common, huh? Unfortunately, this will be a common theme in the story of Ann Lowe: not getting her proper credit for beautiful pieces that she created. But what would also be an issue is the fact that people will not pay her market value for her pieces, essentially taking advantage of her. But more on that later as well. Ayeshia explains why it's important for a fashion designer to get proper due and credit for their work.

It's so important that we, as designers, get the credit that we are due, because we put our blood, sweat, tears, everything into it. If we create something that has a unique look, like, we want credit for that! And people love to put a spin on it and take our idea and run with it. Like, give peo–– give us our credit, because it's so much work that goes into it. It's not just like, 'Oh, you know, let me just make this real quick.' Like, it's so much, like, fire that goes into it and research, being creative. Like, it takes time, it's a craft. We be sensitive about our stuff and we want the credit that we deserve for the work that we did to it. It only makes sense.

Wanting to make sure that doesn't happen again, Ann opens up more shops, as Elizabeth Way mentioned before. And just like it did in Clayton, Alabama, and Tampa, Florida, Ann's pieces and her business model attract the top of the social register. Ann would tell you herself, she is a self proclaimed awful snob when it comes to her pieces, saying quote, "I love my clothes. I'm particular about who wears them. I'm not interested in sewing for the cafe society or social climbers. I do not cater to Mary and Sue. I sew for the families of the social register." Now for those of us like myself, who are not really in the fashion world like that, you might feel some type of way about what Ann said. But for Ayeshia, she understands where TT is coming from, and explains why she took that approach.

It builds the value in your garment, like in your pieces, and build your–– the value in your brand. This is like–– I don't know how to describe it. But let's just say you don't want just any old body wearing your stuff. Like, I want something for everybody that can wear, like, when celebrities start wearing your pieces, like, it creates this prestige about you. If people have this idea about you, and it just lived up to what–– you know, the brand that you're creating, so it just built that value to me, in my opinion.

And when we look at Ann's clientele list, she was surely building a strong brand. Let's just look at the names. First, there's the Rockefellers, the American family that is extremely wealthy due to the petroleum business. Then there's the Roosevelts, responsible for producing not one but two US presidents. And then there's the du Ponts, that made their fortune in chemicals and a little-known automotive company called General Motors. And then there were the Auchinclosses, who were into real estate and oil, but I need to back up a bit.

Janet Lee Bouvier, born Janet Lee Norton, is a socialite during this time. She was the honorary director of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association. Yeah, I'm not getting into that. She marries John Bouvier III, but his love of the drink and the company of other women that are not his wife, lead to a divorce. But they would have a daughter together, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. And while Janet will go on to marry Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, of the Auchinclosses I mentioned before, in 1942, little Jackie comes of age and starts to date this golden boy US congressman from Boston, who comes from a family that is also of the social register. There are many that believe that the hotshot from Massachusetts couldn't be president one day. I'm obviously referring to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. But for now, John and Jackie are dating and decided to get married in 1953. Now, connections and money are not a problem for either of these families, so finding a wedding dress designer would not be a problem. But Jackie remembers seeing Olivia de Havilland 's dress at the Oscars and wanted to have that person make her wedding dress. This wedding is going to be the social event of the year, and that wedding dress will be its crown jewel. So Janet tracks down and hires Ann Lowe to make the dress, along with other dresses for the wedding party. But before the ceremony, disaster strikes. About a week and a half leading up to the wedding, and just about everything done. Well, I'll let Elizabeth Way, from the Fashion Institute of Technology, take it from here.

The story of this water main break in her studio, this was for Jacqueline Kennedy's 1953 wedding dress. She had spent two months making this dress, as well as about a dozen bridesmaids gowns. And when the water pipe burst, it ruined the bridal dress and many of the bridal gowns, and this was 10 days before the wedding.

This was a great opportunity for Ann, not just from an exposure standpoint, but from a monetary one. This would have been a $700 profit, or $7,500 adjusted for inflation, for her business. But with the stroke of bad luck, Ann's and the work of her employees, it's now ruined. However, when you follow the story of Ann Lowe, you know that this is familiar territory. Remember, when she was 16, she was thrust into the head of the family business when her mother suddenly passed away, not to mention all the other adverse moments she's experienced. But when you grow up in Black America, you found out quickly that there's power and strength in community. Many would have you believe that we don't practice that, but there are countless examples of this Tanzanian proverb "Many hands make light work." It's probably a safe assumption that Ann is frustrated in this moment, but she has always been part of a community that will never let Sis be out here by herself. Through the darkest chapters of human history, we have faced unimaginable trials. Ann knows that in unity, we find strength. So in her toughest moment, Titi summons her tribe. She first contacts the supplier that she originally worked with, and luckily, they had enough material she needed to reproduce the pieces for the wedding. And Titi and her community get to work.

So she had to pull her community together. So all the women who worked for her, people from her church came to help, her son was stitching, helping to stitch these together. She pulled on her whole community to get this job done.

And they still meet the deadline for the big social event of the season, including Jackie's dress.

And she never mentioned it to Jacqueline Kennedy's mother, Janet Auchincloss, who was a very loyal client, and instead of making a profit, she took a $2,000 loss on this job. But she got it done. And that was important to her. It was, in the end, even though she didn't get the, kind of, the press credit that she deserved at the time, at the end, it did become her most famous dress.

What originally took eight weeks to create takes five days to reproduce. Talk about the tenacity and the grit of Ann Lowe. Ann was at the height of her powers: successful business and a client list that reads like the Fortune 500. However, while Ann Lowe's dedication to her craft was unwavering, it came at a cost. Titi Ann's journey is inspiring, but this is the part where it becomes a bit of a cautionary tale. And it starts from a comment that Elizabeth made earlier.

In terms of business, she wasn't as interested in the business aspects of her work, as a creative. And we find this across history, fashion history. Yves Saint Laurent, Charles James, all these creatives aren't necessarily focused on the numbers.

And as Elizabeth continues, she shares the Ann Lowe story, while inspiring, is also filled with other teachable moments.

At FIT, we tell fashion students all the time, "You have to pay attention to the business side." And that might not be the most fun, but it's really important. But I always want to point out that yes, Ann Lowe wasn't maybe a great business woman, but so many designers have this issue. Today, back then, it was not uncommon. And it wasn't in particular to her because she was a Black woman. There was a stable time in her kind of career when her son Arthur was keeping her books, but he died very tragically in a car accident in 1958, and so she did fall into tax arrears, she lost her shop to the IRS. At the same time, she was having a lot of health issues with her eyes, she had eye surgery, and had ended up having had one of her eyes removed.

Let's get into the bit of the numbers here to paint the picture. In the December 1966 edition of Ebony Magazine, Ann talks about those struggles. At one point, she owed almost $13,000 in tax arrears and another $10,000 to suppliers. And it doesn't sound like Lowe was always aware that she was not turning a profit. She said quote, "Too late I realized that dresses I sold for $300 were costing me $450." But what Ann lacked in profit margin, she more than made up for in a different aspect of business-- relationships, because those clients that she worked with over the years came to her aid until the very end.

When she was recovering in the hospital, the IRS called her, and she sold them, she's like, "I don't have any more money." But they called her to tell her that her back taxes were anonymously paid off. And she always suspected that that was Jackie Kennedy who had done that, but she had wealthy clients who did appreciate her. She certainly had other clients who were always trying to bargain her down, who, you know, did not appreciate the beautiful work that she was doing, I'm sure, but she did have clients who took care of her. The Baroness von Langendorff was a client; her husband was a perfumier. She had people who really appreciated her work. They paid for her funeral when she passed in 1981.

The sun would set on this great American icon on February 25, 1981. She was 82 years old. This amazing woman laid the groundwork for some talented people. Many have been inspired by her work from all over, including Christian Dior, who once saw an Ann Lowe piece in Paris. But a year before Ann Lowe's death, another fashion icon would be born in Rockford Hills, Illinois, and he will become a leader for a new generation of designers. I'm referring to Virgil Abloh, who I mentioned at the top of the show. He was an influential American designer, entrepreneur, and DJ, for his groundbreaking work in the fashion industry. Abloh carved a unique path that bridged streetwear with high fashion, and will come to work very closely with one Kanye West. In 2018, he would make history, becoming Louis Vuitton's first African American artistic director. Unfortunately, he would pass on November 28th, 2021. But before his passing, he would inspire many to be an example. When you follow your heart in fashion, or quite frankly, whatever you love to do, including Ayeshia Smith, who thought the world of Virgil.

He was brilliant! Look at–– he created the, like, luxury streetwear. There was no such thing, I don't think, in terms of luxury streetwear, until he came along. Of course they have–– there's Dapper Dan, who does an amazing job with Gucci. But Virgil, he was an innovator. He was futuristic, he was ahead of his time, and he really put his stamp here on Earth and in the fashion industry. For him to be the artistic director for Louis Vuitton, the man is wearing a black man. I'm thankful that he left his imprint here on earth for designers like me to even think outside of the box of–– because I know he said he didn't even consider his pieces to be garments. I look at my pieces as art, so I was like, " I can relate to him on that–– it's wearable art!"

In Black America, we do many things well, especially when it comes to creativity-- from fashion, the way we tell stories, we tend to be the envy of the world. And there is no greater example of that than Ann Lowe, whose life and legacy as a designer wove her dreams into the fabric of American fashion history. The proud daughter of Alabama teaches us that in the grand design, her contributions are a timeless fashion statement, a blend of grace and strength, proving that true style is not just in the clothes we wear but in the stories we tell. Ann Lowe will be remembered as a Black woman who embroidered her name into the annals of fashion history, opening the doors for future generations with every snip of her scissors. And that is why Ann Lowe is an American original.

The Black is America podcast, a presentation of OWLS Education Company, was created and is written, researched and produced by me, Dominic Lawson. Executive Producer, Kenda Lawson. Cover art was created by Alexandria Eddings of Art Life Connections. Sources to create this episode include Ebony Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, the JFK Library, the Academy who hosts the Oscars, C-Span, history.com, and Blackpast.com. And we have quite a few people to thank for this particular episode for our Black History Month finale. First, special thanks to fashion designer Ayeshia Smith of ayeshia.com. Follow her on Instagram at ayeshia.apparel. Also, special thanks to Elizabeth Way, Associate Museum Curator at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Special thanks to my good friend Chutney Young for suggesting Ann Lowe as a topic. And lastly, thank you to Lisa Woolfork, founder of Black Women Stitch and host of the Stitch Please podcast. We collaborated with her on this episode, and she introduced us to Elizabeth Way. Follow Black Women Stitch on Instagram. Be sure to like, review, and subscribe to the Black is America podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, let people know about the podcast. We would appreciate that very much! For full transcript of this episode and other resources, go to www.BlackisAmericapodcast.com. There, you can read our blog, leave us a review, or you can leave us a voicemail, where you can leave a question or let us know what you think about the show, that we may play in a later episode. So that's gonna do it for Black History Month, but don't think for one second we are done. We have more amazing stories to tell you this season. Make sure you are subscribed to Black is America this year, as we release more content leading to our season finale in September. Thank you so much for listening to the multi-award winning Black is America podcast, where our history comes to life. Until next time.

Okay, let me see here, if I got all the information I needed for Ann Lowe out to the people. I think I did, but let me just do my due diligence here. Let me see, go through the Ebony Magazine, duh duh duh. Going through the pages here for–– what's that? What is that say? 1966, year of the quarterback. Hold on, let me read some more here. Hold on for a second. At the start of the 1966 collegiate grid iron season, there were at least 10 Negros calling signals on eight big-time football campuses. Hmm, that's interesting. And here I thought today's NFL was a renaissance of the Black QB. Hmm, it gives me an idea for a future episode. I need to make a phone call first, to get someone in on this conversation. I think he could provide great insight, as he is very familiar with that position, at the college level. Let me just place this call. I hope he picks up.