Ann Lowe: American Couturier, an interview with Elizabeth Way

Summary

Dressed: The History of Fashion – Episode Summary

Title: Ann Lowe: American Couturier
Guest: Elizabeth Way
Release Date: February 5, 2025
Hosts: April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of Dressed: The History of Fashion, hosts April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary delve into the illustrious yet often underappreciated career of Ann Lowe, a pioneering African American couturier. Joined by esteemed guest curator Elizabeth Way, the discussion unpacks Lowe's significant contributions to American fashion, her distinctive design techniques, and the enduring legacy she has left behind.

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Ann Lowe's Early Life and Career

Elizabeth Way begins by tracing Ann Lowe's roots, highlighting her early exposure to dressmaking within a family of skilled artisans. Born in Clayton, Alabama, around 1898, Lowe was immersed in the craft from a young age. "At the age of six, she would go out into the garden with her grandmother's and mother's dress scraps and start to fashion flowers out of fabric," Way explains (09:19).

Lowe's professional journey took a pivotal turn in 1928 when she opened her own doors in New York City, coinciding with Elizabeth Hawes's emergence. Despite the rampant institutionalized racism of the Jim Crow era, Lowe broke barriers by establishing a couture atelier that attracted elite clientele. Her collaboration with prominent American fashion houses like Hattie Carnegie and Neiman Marcus further cemented her reputation within the industry.

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Lowe's Signature Style and Techniques

Lowe's genius lay in her meticulous attention to detail and innovative design techniques. "She was known for a technique that we call fussy cutting, where she would cut out motifs, mostly flowers, from the print of a fabric," Way describes (20:42). This method involved hand-finishing and collaging fabric pieces to create intricate patterns, a hallmark of her work.

Her gowns, renowned for their elaborate hand embellishments, rivaled any haute couture creations from Paris. Lowe adeptly navigated through various fashion eras, incorporating new materials like acetate and nylon tulle in the 1940s and 60s. Her ability to seamlessly blend traditional craftsmanship with contemporary styles underscored her status as a master couturier.

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Challenges and Triumphs

Despite her undeniable talent, Ann Lowe faced numerous challenges stemming from her identity and the societal norms of her time. The ephemeral nature of her recognition in the press, partly due to her high-profile clients' preferences for anonymity, hindered her broader acclaim. "She was considered a dressmaker and not an haute couturier like Christian Dior or Balenciaga," Way points out (28:26).

Financial instability plagued Lowe, exacerbated by personal tragedies such as the loss of her son in 1958 and health issues requiring risky surgeries. Nevertheless, her community and loyal clientele, including Baroness von Langendorff, provided crucial support during these tumultuous periods.

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The Winterthur Exhibition

Elizabeth Way highlights the landmark Ann Lowe American Couturier exhibition at the Winterthur Museum, celebrating Lowe's legacy with over 40 gowns spanning from the 1920s to the 1960s. "It is the most comprehensive exhibition on Ann Lowe to date," Way asserts (36:26). The showcase features iconic pieces such as Jacqueline Kennedy's 1953 wedding dress and the Axar Ben Debutante Ball gown from 1961.

April Callahan shares her personal experience attending the symposium at Winterthur, praising the exhibition's meticulous design and the invaluable insights gained from conservation efforts that restored Lowe's creations. "It's exceptionally well done. The exhibition design is beautiful, the costume mounting is beautiful," Callahan enthusiastically remarks (37:00).

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Ann Lowe's Legacy

Ann Lowe's impact on American fashion endures, particularly in paving the way for future African American designers. Way emphasizes Lowe's role as a transitional figure who transformed labor into a lucrative business during a time when opportunities for Black women were severely limited. "She was a dressmaker who evolved into a fashion designer, contributing significantly to the rise of American fashion," Way explains (34:24).

Her legacy also includes fostering a sense of community and mentorship within her atelier, training many in haute couture techniques. Lowe's story challenges traditional fashion narratives, positioning her alongside renowned designers like Christian Dior in terms of skill and creativity, albeit with limited recognition during her lifetime.

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Conclusion

This episode of Dressed: The History of Fashion offers a profound exploration of Ann Lowe's remarkable career and enduring influence. Through Elizabeth Way's expert insights and the thoughtful discourse between April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of Lowe's artistry, the hurdles she overcame, and her lasting legacy in the fashion world.

As the hosts celebrate Lowe's contributions, they invite listeners to reflect on the profound ways American makers have shaped contemporary wardrobes, urging a deeper appreciation for designers whose stories might otherwise remain hidden.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Elizabeth Way: "At the age of six, she would go out into the garden with her grandmother's and mother's dress scraps and start to fashion flowers out of fabric." (09:19)

• Elizabeth Way: "She was known for a technique that we call fussy cutting, where she would cut out motifs, mostly flowers, from the print of a fabric." (20:42)

• Elizabeth Way: "She was considered a dressmaker and not an haute couturier like Christian Dior or Balenciaga." (28:26)

• Elizabeth Way: "She was a dressmaker who evolved into a fashion designer, contributing significantly to the rise of American fashion." (34:24)

• April Callahan: "It's exceptionally well done. The exhibition design is beautiful, the costume mounting is beautiful." (37:00)

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Timestamps Reference

• [09:19] Elizabeth Way discusses Ann Lowe's early life and family background.
• [20:42] Lowe's signature techniques and design aesthetics are explained.
• [28:26] Challenges Lowe faced in gaining recognition due to societal norms.
• [34:24] Lowe's legacy and influence on future African American designers.
• [37:00] April Callahan's personal experience with the Winterthur exhibition.

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For more insights into Ann Lowe's work and the comprehensive exhibition at Winterthur Museum, interested listeners are encouraged to explore further resources and the exhibition catalog available through Dressed Media's website.

Transcript

[Cassidy Zachary]

Please enjoy this episode from the Dressed archive of over 500 plus shows. Dressed will be back with all new content in March of 2025. Until then, consider heading to DressedHistory.com to explore our latest online fashion history classes and in person tours of Paris and New York City. More from Dressed coming your way soon.

[April Callahan]

The History of Fashion is a production of Dressed media. With over 8 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day we all get dressed.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Welcome to Dressed the History of Fashion, a podcast that explores the who, what, when of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts Cassidy Zachary and April Callahan.

[April Callahan]

Dress listeners, we are so pleased to have the opportunity to stitch together some rarer pieces of American fashion history today and along the way bust a few fashion history myths.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Yay.

[April Callahan]

Which is of course something that we love to do on Dressed. And Today's subject has famously been called Society's best kept secret secret by the Saturday Evening Post. And that is because for more than 50 years, Anne Lowe was in many ways American fashion's fairy godmother, spinning the sartorial dreams of thousands of debutantes and brides into reality.

[Cassidy Zachary]

And I'm sure our listeners are going to join us in saying we are so excited for this episode. We've talked about annlo so many times on the show. So excited to hear your interview with Liz today, April. And as new scholarship on Lowe's life and career have emerged over the last several years, the narrative that Low operated in the couture tradition and complete anonymity has been somewhat countered as we will learn more about today. In her time, Low was a much beloved and highly respected designer within the American fashion industry. And in addition to her own one of a kind creations, her career also saw her working in partnership with the leading American fashion purveyors, including Hattie Carnegie, Neiman Marcus, I. Magnan and Saks Fifth Avenue. And that's just to name a few.

[April Callahan]

Sought after for her opinions on fashion by the New York Times and Ebony Magazine, Lowe's career paved a path in American fashion for many of the black designers who followed in her footsteps. And Cass, this is something that I was completely unaware of before I started working on the episode. And this is that Ann Lowe opened her doors to clients in New York City in 1928, and that is the exact same year that Elizabeth Hawes opened her custom salon in New York City. So you know, this is this exceptionally early kind of pivotal point in the American fashion design movement. So if this was considered a very daring move for Elizabeth Hawes, with her Paris training, her Vassar education, and all of her elite social connections, it was all the more risky for Anne as a black designer because, of course, she was also facing the era's institutionalized racism. And let's not forget that segregation had only officially been ended in New York City eight years earlier in 1920. So would her gamble pay?

[Cassidy Zachary]

Yeah. And I have to say, this was one of those, like, surprises and aha moments for me too. And I'm very familiar with her work from the 1950s and 1960s, but I had absolutely no idea it extended all the way back so to the 1920s, which is just incredible and so cool. And of course, fast Forward from the 20s, four decades. And low proudly told reporters for Ebony magazine that with the assistance of her staff of 35, her atelier produced a third thousand custom creations a year. A thousand. Most of which were unique. They were never to be replicated again. And Ann Lowe gowns always have the most utmost attention to detail. They have the highest quality and construction. Her gowns really rival any haute couture creation emerging from Paris at this time. And they brought in a gross sum of what would today be $3 million a year. And yet. A year. And yet Lowe's career, for all of its high points and accolades, really did come with its own unique set of challenges.

[April Callahan]

Cass, as you know, I very recently attended a two day symposium at Winterthur Museum where the exhibition Anne Lowe American Couturier is now on view. And I have to say, it was one of the best fashion symposiums that I've ever been to. It was just every single little detail was thought through. The speakers were amazing, and the conference was uniquely dedicated to Lo and her legacy. And it didn't only cover her career, but it also covered some of the more hidden aspects that go into mounting fashion exhibitions, such as the conservation work that brought a lot of Lowe's creations back to life, refreshed them for exhibition purposes. And I learned so much at this conference. I bet I'm not the only one who walked away from that weekend feeling this way, because it was exceptionally well attended. It was a delight to make some new friends and also see a few familiar faces that I hadn't seen in a few years.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Yes, I so wish I could have joined you because this is really a groundbreaking exhibition in so many ways. And speaking of familiar faces, April, our regular listeners will need no introduction to today's guest, Elizabeth Way, who is guest curator of the Winterthur exhibition, Ann American Couturier. April, you and Liz, of course, work together at fit, where she serves as the associate curator of fashion at the museum at fit. So she was moonlighting a bit for this exhibition at Winter. And. And Liz is one of the foremost authorities on annlo and she's also the editor of the fantastic book Black Designers in American Fashion. So we are so pleased to welcome her back. Thank you, Liz, for joining us today on Dressed.

[April Callahan]

Liz, a very enthusiastic welcome back to Dressed.

[Elizabeth Way]

Thank you so much for having me, April. I love being on Dressed and it's an honor to be back.

[April Callahan]

Yeah. This is your third time on the show now, so you are officially in the running for one of our most frequent guests. I think you are currently tied with Dr. Benjamin Wild and Dr. Kate Strosn.

[Elizabeth Way]

In very good company to be in.

[April Callahan]

I feel like we should do like that thing that they do on SNL when they do the Five Timers Club and we should give you like a dress detective hat or something.

[Elizabeth Way]

Yeah, a piece of clothing for sure.

[April Callahan]

Yeah. Those are still fictive in our universe. Maybe someday we will actually make dress detective hats. But thank you again for being here.

[Elizabeth Way]

Thank you for having me.

[April Callahan]

Our topic today has been so requested by our listeners over our entire six year run of the podcast now. So we're super happy to be able to deliver it for once and for all. And I happen to know that your work on Ann Lowe has its own interesting backstory. Before we even get to Ms. Lowe, could you tell us about how you were first introduced to the designs of Ann Lowe and the trajectory of your work on her, which has followed?

[Elizabeth Way]

Absolutely. So I was in graduate school at NYU and I needed a summer internship and I was very lucky to get an internship at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was perfect for me because it was near my parents house and it paid. And those were the two things I.

[April Callahan]

Was looking for this summer dream come true.

[Elizabeth Way]

But this was before the museum was even built. So we were in office space and I worked with an amazing curator of culture named Elaine Nichols, who is in charge of their fashion and textiles as well as toys and many other departments in the museum. And she sent me to work on the Black Fashion museum collection. So this was an entire museum that was established by a woman named Lois Alexander Lane who lived in New York. It was in Harlem and it was a beautiful and I think the first American museum that was specifically looking at black American designers. And that museum eventually closed. It was very small. But luckily the Smithsonian took the entire collection and so now it lives on as a Part of nmak. And so the collection had come in, and there hadn't been any research, really, on it. And so she just sent me to work researching. And two of the names that I'd come across were Elizabeth Keckley and Ann Lowe. And I was just completely fascinated because they had the most interesting life stories, they had beautiful material culture, and it was really actually very prominent in American fashion, even. Even though I'd never heard of these designers. So I ended up writing my master's thesis on those two designers, and that set me on my trajectory of Ann Lowe.

[April Callahan]

Yeah. And also, too, it's very interesting because there's little tidbits about both of their lives that are parallel each other, which is fascinating.

[Elizabeth Way]

Absolutely. And so I know we're gonna talk about Ann Lowe's background, but she was born into a family of dressmakers, and her grandmother had been an enslaved dressmaker, as Elizabeth Keckley was. They were able to attain their freedom and open businesses in a time when black women had very few employment opportunities.

[April Callahan]

Ye and I would say that perhaps more than any other designer that we have profiled on the show, because we don't always do designer profiles, but lo's origin story is incredibly important to understanding the context of not just her work, but also her life. Can we start at the beginning? Would you tell us about Lo's family background and also her childhood?

[Elizabeth Way]

Yes. So she was born in a town called Clayton, Alabama, and we think about 1898. Census records tell us different things. But again, she was born into this family of very prominent dressmakers. Her grandmother and mother established a business during the reconstruction era, the Jim Crow era, in Montgomery, Alabama, and their clients were some of the most elite, wealthiest white women in the state during the 1910s. The governor's wife was a client, and so Lowe started training with them from a very young age. She talks about how at the age of six, she would go out into the garden with her grandmother's and mother's dress scraps and start to fashion flowers out of fabric. And flowers are going to be a big motif in her career later on. So she. Mary's very young. If her birth date is 1898. She was married by the time she was 12, which is very young, even for that time in the rural South. And her husband, who was a tailor, did not want her to continue to work. She had a baby, and she stepped away from the dressmaking business. But one of the things I really want to emphasize is that even though she learned at home, she was learning at a professional level. She was an apprentice. My mom taught me how to sew, but I certainly not in any way related to the way she was trained as a dressmaker and designer.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Yeah.

[April Callahan]

And it was also, circumstantially, circumstances that truncated her youth a bit. What do we know about that space within this first marriage? And also the events which led to her really turning professional.

[Elizabeth Way]

So there's not that much information. She didn't talk very much about her first marriage. Her son was with her, moved with her when she moved around the country until he died very tragically and prematurely. So she always had her son with her, who was an important part of her family. But her first marriage was something that she didn't really go into. She was very young. He was older. And she also came from a part of the country in which education for black children was not prioritized. And really, the first researcher to really look at AMLO is a woman named Margaret Powell. And she, in her master's thesis, talked about the education system. Black children were not given opportunities to learn, and they weren't given resources. And so this woman would have had very few options at this point in her life. Her education in math would have been subpar. And then, not to mention, not just learning math, but things about checking and balancing accounts and things like, as far as we know, these weren't things that she had firm education in. Which isn't to say that her mother and grandmother didn't also teach her these things. But like many designers, she wasn't really interested in the numbers in the business, of course. And so that also played a big role in kind of her future business acumen.

[April Callahan]

She lost her mother very young, and this is the turning point which prompted her to turn professional. Would you tell us about that?

[Elizabeth Way]

So in 1914, at the age of 16, Lo loses her mother. And this was between Christmas and New Year's. And so there was a very large order from a very prominent group of women who wanted to attend the Governor's New Year's Eve ball. So Lo stepped in and finished the work that her mother had started. And she delivered these dresses on time. And she talks about how her mother's clients said that she was as good as her mother. And she said, this was a period of my life where I felt like I could do anything, that I had the skills, I had the talent, I had the wherewithal to do this, to work professionally.

[April Callahan]

And what followed next took a little bit of a curious twist. This is not, perhaps necessarily normal in most fashion designers. Trajectories within Their career. And I also want to point out that this. These are the years of World War I that we're talking about. These are the 19 teens. So what happened in 1916 that altered the course of her life so low.

[Elizabeth Way]

Even though she was out of the dressmaking business, continued to make her own clothing. And she was in an Alabama department store. We're not quite sure why, whether she was working as a seamstress. She wouldn't have been working as a sales girl. She might have been in there shopping for other people. But of course, the Jim Crow south would have enforced racial segregation. But she was in this department store, and she was spotted by a woman named Josephine Lee. Josephine Lee was from Alabama, but she currently lived outside of Tampa, Florida. Her husband was a very wealthy citrus businessman. When she saw Lowe's ensemble, she asked her, where did you get this? I don't see clothes like this around here. And Lo said, I made this myself. And so she offered her a job on the spot to come and live with her family in outside of Tampa, Florida, to sew for herself and her four daughters. So she hired her to be her live in dressmaker.

[April Callahan]

Yeah, yeah. And this is a little bit of an unusual story, right? This is. You don't hear about this happening happening terribly often. Now, women at this time very often had dressmakers that they worked with directly and for long periods of time, had an established relationship with. But having a live in dressmaker is a very luxurious proposition.

[Elizabeth Way]

Absolutely. Josephine Lee must have had a really refined taste for fashion and really wanted clothes to help her and her daughter stand out in their social circle. So she must have been very highly motivated and really loved fashion to take on a live in dressmaker. And she really recognized the quality and the eye that Ann Lowe presented, and.

[April Callahan]

That ended up being a very close, familial, nourishing relationship for several years.

[Elizabeth Way]

Absolutely. Lo's husband didn't want her to go, so she left him. She took her son, and she moved into the Lee family household. And she remained close with them. They were friends her entire life.

[April Callahan]

And I just think it's. I just want to mention very briefly that two of the daughters were twins and they loved to dress alike. So she was creating many times matching ensembles for the twins, which is, I think, is incredibly charming.

[Elizabeth Way]

Lo's first assignment when she got to the Leigh household was to make the wedding dresses and trousseaus for the two oldest daughters who were marrying brothers in a double wedding. So these two twins were very much in sync in their social lives. Yeah.

[April Callahan]

And this whole theme of wedding dresses will re emerge again in her career. But this sojourn in Tampa was briefly interrupted by a little tiny stint in New York City. What was she doing here? And I'm correct me if I'm wrong. 1917.

[Elizabeth Way]

1917. So she lived with the Lee's, she was working professionally for them, and she decided she wanted to go to fashion school. And so by this point in her life, she was in her late. She was in her early 20s, late teens. She had already been working for years. She was on a professional level, but she wanted to go to New York and attend fashion school. I think for many of the reasons people want to attend today, to build networks, to get their foot in the city. And she was there for six months. She applied by correspondence, and when she showed up for her first day, the schoolmaster hadn't realized that she was black. And so even though she was leaving the Jim Crow South, I believe this was her first experience outside of the South. She was running into segregation. And the school actually segregated her away in a separate classroom. Away from the other students.

[April Callahan]

Yeah, but what happened?

[Elizabeth Way]

So her work was so meticulous, she was so advanced that very soon the teacher would come in and they look, take a look at her work and go and show it to the rest of the students. And the students would come and stand by the door to watch her work. She graduated in half the time it took the other students.

[April Callahan]

Yeah, she was supremely talented. Not that she didn't work hard, but she just had this skill that others were very much in awe of.

[Elizabeth Way]

Absolutely. And Malcolm Gladwell talks about getting that 10,000 hours. She got that as a teenager. And so she was able to build on those advanced skills for the rest of her life.

[April Callahan]

She returned school back to the Lee family in Tampa for several years. While she was there, she was also designing for the broader community at large. So who became Ann Lowe's customer base at that time and then really moving forward because she comes back to New York again in the late 1920s.

[Elizabeth Way]

Yes. So she, her business grows from the Lee family circle through their friends. And they're very socially elite, a wealthy family. And so their friends and acquaintances are also on that social level. And so low starts making dresses for them and grows her business. Around 1920, she remarries. So she moves out of the Lee family home with her new husband, Caleb west, into a black neighborhood. And she establishes her salon behind her home. And these very wealthy young white women are running in and out of this atelier at all hours during the 20s, she was known for being able to make a dress in one day.

[April Callahan]

That's amazing.

[Elizabeth Way]

So they would come in the morning, drop off fabric, and then they would bring their dates to her salon at night so that they could change immediately into their clothes and go out. So you see these contradictions and the restrictions of the Jim Crow era really have this flexibility when it serves elites. And Lo always looked back at her time in Tampa as a very fond time in her life, that she loved her customers, she loved the role she played in their community.

[April Callahan]

And these weren't just day dresses or date dresses. She garnered a lot of clients within the debutante realm and special events, special occasion wear. Lo became very well known for a couple of specialty items, her evening wear in particular. So what was her customer base for those items?

[Elizabeth Way]

So she worked with a lot of debutantes. The social season was practiced in Tampa, like it would have been practiced in New York or London or Paris. And there were all of these debutante balls, but also Gasparilla. So Gasparilla is an annual event that still happens in Tampa, and it's. It's based on the legend of a pirate from the 1400s, I believe. But in the 1920s, the Gasparilla Festival included a royal court. And so the elite young women, I think probably the most popular debutante would be elected the queen, and there'd be courtiers. And every year, there was a different theme. So being the 20s, we had an Egyptian theme. We have Chinese themes, We have historical English themes. And Low was commissioned to make the court gowns between 1924 and 1928. This was a huge commission, especially for a black woman at this time. And so we really see this amazing creativity because these are fantasy gowns. These are costumes. We see this beautiful, amazing detail that certainly is in conversation with fashion in the 1920s, but really is its own kind of thing.

[April Callahan]

And that there is a whole history of haute couturiers doing fancy dress. Charles Frederick Worth did a ton of it. That is a whole other narrative within the history of fashion. So far, we have really been setting up the trajectory of Lo's life. We're going to take a brief sponsor break, but we will return to discuss her signature style and exceptional skills as a couturier.

[Cassidy Zachary]

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[April Callahan]

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[April Callahan]

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[Elizabeth Way]

Absolutely. So Lowe's career spanned from the 1910s through 1972 when she retired. And so she lives through an enormous amount of fashion change. And so we can look at things that she did in the 20s and the 30s and really she specializes in beautiful hand details, the beading. She was known for a technique that we call fussy cutting, where she would cut out motifs, mostly flowers, from the print of a fabric. Meticulously hand overcast, hand finish these pieces of fabric and then collage them together to create motifs on the printed fabric. Embroidery applique. She hand painted flowers so flowers were something that we see come up again and again in her work. But really her signature was just these beautiful layers of embellishment and those layers went down deep into the dress. So we look at her 1950s and 60s pieces that are much more structured than her 20s or 30s. She has a very specific way of building her bodices and I can only imagine that this is a technique that she learned from her grandmother. When the new look comes in 47, this is really her aesthetic heyday. This is the aesthetic that she really loves. And I think that the connections between the new look and kind of mid 19th century fashion, it's no coincidence that she finds affinity with this style.

[April Callahan]

She already had the techniques in the bag. She already knew where she was going next. One of the things that really struck me when looking at all the garments in person at the exhibition was the exceptional quality of everything, basically from the materials to the construction. What are some of the types of materials that Lowe favored using?

[Elizabeth Way]

She uses a lot of silks. That's really the number one fabric that we see. But she was no stranger to synthetics. We have a beautiful dress in the Winterthur exhibition from 1941. It's a wedding gown made of acetate, because by this time, we're already seeing those silk shortages coming from the conflicts in Asia. Nylon tulle. French nylon tulle is something that she uses during the early 60s. So she is dealing with all of these new materials that are coming out at this time. And we also see foam bus pads and things that actually have not fared so well, conservation wise. But these were new kind of materials that were really popular during the 50s and 60s. When we look inside of her work, we see the boning, the meticulous elastics that she put on the inside. Her dresses were known for always fitting perfectly and that the wearer didn't need to wear a bra or a girdle. Everything was built in. She would hand ruche pieces of thigh to line the inside of the hem to keep hems out, and she finished her seams with lace binding. So all of these little beautiful techniques that are not completely unique to her, but the combination and the way she did it. You can always look inside an Ann Lowe gown from the 50s or 60s and recognize her work.

[April Callahan]

And these are couture techniques. She is working at the couture level. At the symposium, somebody made the very real point that she was doing it all herself or within her team. And she was training many of the members of her team in these haute couture techniques. And that wasn't just hand sewing, but the feathers and all of the ribbon details and all of these little things. She was just supremely gifted.

[Elizabeth Way]

Absolutely. She. In Paris, you would have all these beautiful houses that could do embroidery or beading or feather work for you. She was doing that all herself. She was sourcing in a New York fashion industry that's a little more robust than it is today. So there were these specialized suppliers, but all that labor was happening in her workshop.

[April Callahan]

Many of these garments that are in the exhibition have histories that come along with them. Do you have a couple of favorites that you might like to recount for our listeners?

[Elizabeth Way]

So some of my favorite pieces are ones that were actually altered by their clients. So we opened the exhibition with a beautiful gown that was worn by a woman named Lynn Neville Robinson. And she was a countess in a ball called the Axar Ben Ball in 1961. This was in Omaha, Nebraska. A commission for Axar Ben went to New York to find a designer and they found love at Saks Fifth Avenue, where she was at the time. It's this beautiful over the top, pale pink layered tulle dress with beautiful beaded embroidery on it. Lo made 33 of these gowns amazing. But the wearer, after the event, she added a white petticoat underneath just to lighten up the color a bit. And then she wore it as her wedding gown. And I really love that we have another debutante gown from the Smithsonian that was started life as a white gown, but then it was dyed blue. And the woman who wore it donated it and explained that it's very gauche to wear white to someone else's debut. But she wanted to rewear this dress and so she had it dyed this beautiful blue color. So I think that really speaks to, first of all how special it was to have a custom made gown by this time, as it would be today, but that the wearers really loved these pieces and they wanted to to extend their life beyond one occasion.

[April Callahan]

So at this point in her history, we have to talk about Ann Lowe's greatest claim to fame today, which is of course creating the wedding gown for Jacqueline Bouvier and also the bridesmaids dresses, which is of course perhaps lesser known than the actual wedding gown itself. So for a lot of these commissions that Lo was taking on, as you mentioned, for the Axar Ben ball, she's making 30 plus gowns for weddings. She's doing the wedding gown and all the bridesmaids dresses as well. So would you tell us a little bit about this particular commission? Because this moment in her career was equal parts triumph and trials and tribulations.

[Elizabeth Way]

Absolutely. So Low's most famous dress, without a doubt, is Jacqueline Kennedy's 1953 wedding dress. Jacqueline Kennedy's mother was a very loyal client of Ann Lowe, Janet Auchincloss, and she brought all of her daughters to Lowe for their debutante dresses. The wedding dress that Jacqueline Bouvier at that time commissioned from Low was her second wedding dress that she went to Low for her first engagement fell through and so Love was really excited to make this commission. She respected Janet Auchincloss a lot. She liked Jacam Bouvier. She talked about how sweet and kind she was. And this was the wedding of the year. Jacqueline Bouier had already been named debutante of the year 1947. So she already had this profile at this time, Vogue was covering these socialites a lot more than they do today. And John F. Kennedy was a freshman senator but already making a huge splash. So this was a very highly anticipated wedding. So 10 days before the wedding, which was to take place in Newport, Rhode Island, a water pipe burst in Ann's workroom and ruined the wedding dress as well as nine of the bridesmaids dresses. She talked about walking into her studio and just like seeing the damage and just starting to cry.

[April Callahan]

Devastating.

[Elizabeth Way]

But then she said stop crying. And I was like, I have 10 days to redo this. And she pulled on all of her resources. Every woman who worked in her workshop, even her son was helping a reconstructed dresses friends from church. She pulled her entire community together to get this job done because it was such a big deal. So she remade the wedding dress in five days, something that had taken her two months up to that point to create, remade all the other dresses. Hand delivered that all of the dresses to Newport, Rhode island. The morning of the wedding. And she tells the story is like she went up to the front door to all of these beautiful dresses and boxes and the butler told her that she had to use the service entrance in the back. And she told him if the bride wanted her dress today, she's coming in through that door.

[April Callahan]

No thank you. In 1964, and this touches on that point specifically, in 1964 the popular publication Saturday Evening Post published an article on Ann Lowe calling her society's best kept secret. And one of the things that repeatedly came up in the two day symposium at Winterthur was the fact that Lowe's work wasn't exactly secret. And there's plenty of press coverage to prove it. However, Jackie Kennedy and many of her other high profile clients didn't necessarily publicly claim Low as the designer of their gowns. How did those established social hierarchies and race relations factor in Lowe's omission in the press coverage of those socialites wardrobes at that time?

[Elizabeth Way]

So one of the major tribulations of the Jacqueline Kennedy wedding dress was that she didn't get credit in the press for it. And that was a huge blow to her. All of her clients knew that she made that dress. And that was part of the issue with press. Her clients were members of the social register. She liked to brag about that very elite women. And they were not interested in going to dressmakers and other people who could be accessed by everyone. They like to keep those things secret, as they would say. And so they weren't eager to advertise Ann Lowe's name. But another aspect of that was that she was an American designer. They very much considered her to be a dressmaker and not an haute couturier like Christian Dior or Balenciaga. And so this idea that American fashion was less valuable but than French fashion was certainly an idea that was very strong even among fashion designers in New York. It took us a long time to shake off the shadow of Paris from the New York industry. But the fact that she was a black woman was also a contributing factor. Her clients underpaid her. So many factors go into kind of the reason why it took her so long to emerge in this national conversation. That being said, the New York Times was going to her in the 1950s and 60s to ask her, what are the newest trends in debutante gowns. She was credited as Nina Auchincloss, Jacqueline Kennedy's stepsister, as she was credited as Nina's dress designer in Vogue in 1955. She wasn't an unknown name, but she certainly wasn't known outside of these circles for her impact on American fashion until very late in her career in the 1960s.

[April Callahan]

And that period of her career was exceptionally challenging as well. She was definitely getting her flowers in that moment in some respects. But she also had a lot of other things happening. She had some financial turmoil and a succession of different businesses, and also in terms of her health. So what was going on with her at that time?

[Elizabeth Way]

So she, as we mentioned before, she was not really interested in the business aspects of her dress, and she tended to undercharge for her work when her clients haggled with her instead, kind of simplifying design to fit the price. She really wanted to produce that beautiful gown, and so she would sell it under price. During the 50s, her son kept her books, and this was a really stable period of her career financially. But as we mentioned before, he died tragically in a car accident in 1958. In 1960, her shop cop was seized by the IRS because she wasn't paying her taxes. At the same time, she had to undergo a risky eye surgery. She actually had her right eye removed because it was so damaged from glaucoma. She was recovering in the hospital when she gets a call from the irs and she tells him, look, I don't have anything else to take. But they called her to tell her that her back taxes were anonymously paid off. She always suspected that Jacqueline Kennedy paid her back taxes, but her clients and some of her clients really did support her and came through for her when she really needed them. A woman named Baroness von Langendorff was a loyal client and paid for her funeral, for example, when she passed. But these financial troubles were going to follow her kind of throughout the rest of her career. She just really had a hard time pricing and structuring her business in that way.

[April Callahan]

She needed somebody on the other. She needed a Pierre Berger.

[Elizabeth Way]

Exactly. Exactly. And I just like to point out that so many designers. Paul Poiret notoriously died in debt. So many creative designers and artists of all kinds suffer from these issues.

[April Callahan]

And also, too, in the 1960s, she started parlaying, collaborating with other businesses. Yes. Would you want to mention just a couple of those?

[Elizabeth Way]

One of the most important was Madeline Couture. So she did work for Saks Fifth Avenue for a time, and that was not very financially advantageous for her. She declared bankruptcy in 1963 after that. But she started working for Madeline Couture, and it was a shop shop owned by Benjamin and Ione Stoddard. It had been started by Benjamin's mother. And the key aspect of this relationship is that they were really interested in promoting Ann Lowe. They hired a publicist. They were the ones who were sending out all of these letters to have her appear on the Mike Douglas show, her only television appearance, as far as I know. And the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, they have a blog post where you can see that footage. You can hear her talking. There's a fashion show. So if you're interested, definitely check that out.

[April Callahan]

And also see how quite stylish she was herself. She had a very particular look.

[Elizabeth Way]

She understood the assignment when it came to projecting herself as designer. And what's interesting is that image of a designer, especially a female designer, was developing at that time, especially in the United States. So she had these very severe, chic black ensembles. Definitely what we think of what a designer looks like.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Yeah.

[April Callahan]

And she loved hats, too. Yeah. Fabulous, as always. We've mentioned Elizabeth Keckley very briefly at the top of this episode. One of the very first episodes of Dressed that we ever recorded was, of course, on Elizabeth. And you close the exhibition with this final section that's on Legacy. So I'm hoping that you might speak a little bit about both Keckley and Lowe's legacy in terms of the opportunities for African American fashion designers today.

[Elizabeth Way]

Absolutely. So in my master's thesis, I really look at Keckley and Lowe as transitional designers, women who've been able to benefit from enslaved labor. Keckley directly and Lowe, through her grandmother and mother, and transform that labor into lucrative businesses. The vast majority of black American women during the 19th and early 20th century worked in agriculture, as sharecroppers, or as domestic servants. There are very few opportunities. So to be able to own your own business, to work in an occupation that was relatively safe and clean, this was a huge deal for black women. And so they really transformed. They lived through this period where we see American design rise and come into its own. Definitely much more with Low than with Keckley and this idea of the fashion designer emerge. When Low started her career, she was a dressmaker. When she ended it, she was a fashion designer. And that's a change that took place over her lifetime and that she contributed to through her aesthetics. The way she presented herself, the way she talked about her design as a creative, artistic pursuit, the way she branded and marketed herself in the press, all of these contributed to what we think of as designer, which is very different than what we think of as an early 20th century dressmaker.

[April Callahan]

Yeah. And the quality of her creations as well. Some people have said if she would have been a white man, she might have been Christian Dior.

[Elizabeth Way]

Absolutely. The quality of her work was that good. And her beautiful, very feminine aesthetic was so in line with what was happening in fashion, especially during the 1950s and early 60s, that she really, she. People said if she had worked in France, but she really had the. All the makings to become a nationally known, respected designer. But being black, being a woman, having that background, and the US Wasn't really ready for that at that point as well. But I think that one of the reason her story gets lost as well, and this is a major thesis of the exhibition, is that she was a couturier. She wasn't working in the ready to wear industry. And. And so much of New York's fashion story is about ready to wear. And so in the contemporary period, we look at contemporary designers, and one of the most important is B. Michael, because he's also a couturier working in New York, and he certainly does Ready to Wear as well. But I really love that he's continuing this couture tradition. Yeah.

[April Callahan]

And he actually spoke at the symposium. And actually, now that I think about it, I think it was him who pointed out that it was Ann Lowe was like, look, she was working as a plumier, she was working as an embroiderer. She was doing all. All these things where these other haute couture in Paris had. Were outsourcing a lot of that work to specialty makers. She was doing it all in house. Liz, thank you. So much for joining us to share the incredible story of Ann Lowe. She was an extraordinarily talented couturier and one could only wonder where her work might have gone had she had various proper forms of support and and also too, maybe even the free rein to push her boundaries as a maker. What would she have made, perhaps if she explored other realms outside of that bread and butter of the fantasy dresses that she became known for? Her talents are right there on par with the best of the best.

[Elizabeth Way]

Absolutely. She was very influential as an American fashion maker, and I hope that this exhibition and the accompanying book and also this podcast and more and more interest on her will really place her in that echelon of great American American designers.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Liz, thank you for sharing your ongoing scholarship on Ann Lowe. April. As you mentioned, listeners have been requesting this episode for years now, and Liz's exhibition up at Winterturn Museum in Delaware is a seminal exploration of Ann Lowe's life and work and it is on view draws listeners through January 7, 2024 and April. You talked about it at the top of the show. You actually got to see the exhibition in person. Can you tell me a little bit more about it or maybe highlight a few of your favorite pieces? Because like I said, I'm familiar with very specific pieces, but there are so many more Annlows out there in the.

[April Callahan]

World, and it is a delight when scholars track them down. Everybody gets very excited when a new Annloe gets discovered somewhere. But the exhibition itself is in the galleries, the contemporary galleries that are associated with the Winterthur Museum, and it is the most comprehensive exercise exhibition on and low to date. It has 40 gowns ranging in date from the 1920s into the 1960s. And I just want to mention something that Liz and I did not talk about in the interview. Liz talked about the Axar Ben Debutante Ball gown that's in the exhibition. The wearer of said gown was at the fashion symposium, which was pretty amazing, and Lallyn Jessup, she was there both days, so it was really cool to actually get to meet one of annlo's clients as well. But favorite pieces. The show is so beautiful. It's exceptionally well done. The exhibition design is beautiful, the costume mounting is beautiful. It's just from tip to top, really spectacular exhibition. It's really hard because of that to pick a favorite. The one that I'm going to mention may not necessarily exactly be my aesthetic favorite, but it's intellectual, my favorite. And it's this gown that was made for musician Elizabeth mance in the 1960s and she was a pianist, a professional pianist. And so the gown itself, up at the top and at the hips, it looks like a sheath gown. It's very fitted at the waist. And fitted at the hips, it is in this pale ice blue satin with kind of a net overlay and then a pale ice blue lace, most motifs over it. And the lace motifs cover the entire dress, except for from one hip across the knees down to, like, the lower portion of the skirt is a swath of the pale blue satin that doesn't have lace on it. And on that high hip, there's like half of a big floppy satin bow. And this was a design detail that AMLO put in this little swath across the front. So when she sat down, she had some give when she was sitting at the piano. And when she sits, it's like this perfect little, like, graphic detail of the dress. And there's only half a bow at the hip because you don't need the full bow because she's sitting on the piano bench. And just another little detail about this dress too. Liz mentioned the term fussy work when Ann would cut out flowers out of a printed fabric and then overcast the edges and then use them as appliques. That's actually what this lace is all over this gown. So she got a pale blue lace and then cut out the flower details of it that had cording around the edge and then appliqued them onto the net. Tons of of handwork went into this dress, and I just love how smart it is as well.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Yeah, she was a true master of her craft. Like, she's incredibly talented, architect of design, and just so thoughtful and a contemporary of Christian Dior, but how rarely are they spoken together in the same sentence? And yet she is just, if not more so, influential within her sphere. Right. So it's. It really challenges that those traditional narratives that we've all heard in a really beautiful way. So, April, my favorite dress is Ann Lowe's American beauty dress from 1966-67. Did you by chance have the honor of seeing it in person?

[April Callahan]

Yes, it is of course, covered in roses, as are probably at least dozen of the other gowns that are in the exhibition. Flowers were one of Ann Lowe's specialty. These really delicate, beautiful handmade flowers. And there are so many of these flower dresses within the show, but that one is particularly special.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Yeah, every time I post on Art of Dress, it gets like tens of thousands of likes. It is one of it. I think it is one of my favorites, if not my favorite dress. In the history of fashion because it just is so incredibly beautiful. And it has this. It's like a silk dress. It's otherwise simple in shape. It's an empire style from the 1960s. It has a little bit of a bustle drape at the back, but it's covered in a swath of roses that extend from the shoulders all the way down to the lower back, and then all the way down the back, and it cascades around to the front and just. Yeah, these beautiful. American Beauty is a type of rose, and it's. So the dress is fittingly called American Beauty, and it's just these pink silk satin flowers. Incredibly beautiful. We'll post images. Don't you worry, dress listeners.

[April Callahan]

Yes, absolutely. And very cool is it's featured in the exhibition catalog with a detailed view of inside of the bodice, so you can actually see inside the dress. And. And something else that Liz and I didn't really talk about is that a lot of Ann Lowe's, even for her debutante gowns, a lot of the gowns were considered a little bit sexy because they had these very low backs. Right. More than a few debutante mothers were slightly displeased about how much back was revealed for their daughter's debuts. But Ann Lowe did this specifically. She said that she didn't want their escorts, that dancing partners, to get their fingerprints on the dress itself.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Oh, my gosh.

[April Callahan]

So she made these low backs, and that's the reason why.

[Cassidy Zachary]

So every detail is so thought of. I just. I love it so much. And I'm so glad, actually, that you mentioned the exhibition catalog, because if you cannot, like myself, dress listeners, make it to Delaware, you can get, of course, the incredible exhibition catalog of the same name, Ann Lowe, American Couturier. And we can actually link to it in our show notes. You can get it on our dress bookshelf. So we cannot say enough great things about this catalog, which, of course, features gorgeous details of Lowe's designs, like the interiors of garments, as April was just referencing.

[April Callahan]

Yeah. And the catalog goes into so much more detail about a lot of things that Liz and I did not discuss in depth, including a lot more about Jackie's wedding dress and also a little bit of an incident that occurred a few years later when Lo Bail became upset at the first lady. She was the first lady at this time over how she low was cited in the press as the designer. Or not.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Or not. Yeah, I was going to say.

[April Callahan]

Also, Turt undertook this other astonishing endeavor to recreate Jackie's wedding dress. The original which is held at the JFK Library and Presidential Museum, is far too delicate to be displayed. So they partnered with fashion designer and educator Katra Rolsey, who went to the Presidential Museum, studied the dress in detail, and then she recreated it for the exhibition using Ann Lowe's techniques as best as she could figure them out to be. And she also contributed a really wonderful chapter in the exhibition catalog documenting this portion of the project. And I just want to give a very special word of thanks here to Alexandra Deutsch and Kim Collison and the staff of Winterthur for having dressed to the symposium. Dress listeners, if you have never been to Winterthur like I had, this was my first visit, it will not be my last. It is a truly amazing place to visit. The museum itself is sited in the 175 room. Yes, you heard me correctly, former home of the Dupont family and the collection that the museum houses. It's like historic house museum, but it is one of the best, if not the best repositories of American decorative arts in the entire world. That is the entirety of the museum. They also have an incredible American material culture degree program at Winterthur with an emphasis on conservation and not to mention the incredibly expansive and very beautiful gardens and grounds where you can actually. It's so big you can go hiking if you really want to. So a trip to Winterthur, highly recommend. No notes on a very superbly run symposium.

[Cassidy Zachary]

And I'm just curious, is it the famed Dupont family of the textile industry.

[April Callahan]

You would be correct. Who actually made their fortune before the American Revolution in gunpowder? From gunpowder to textiles to chemicals, there's a whole history there. Yeah, different story for a different day, perhaps.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Yeah, we have done an episode on Dupont in terms of. In the context of Lycra, but yes, different story. But that's super fascinating, but also fitting that they have a textile and dress collection. And on that enthusiastic recommendation, April for the exhibition and the exhibition catalog that does it for us today, dress listeners, and may you consider how American makers have influenced what's in your closet Next time you get dressed. Remember, we do love hearing from you, so please write to us at our email at. Hello. DressedHistory.com DressedHistory.com is also our website where you can learn more about the show and anything else we have up our fashionable sleeves, like our upcoming fashion history tours in 2024 in New York and Paris and our newest addition, fashion history classes. You can also DM us@instagram dresspodcast, which is where we post images and reels to accompany each week's episode and to find content connected to this specific episode, look for the hashtag dressed334. That's dressed and the numbers 334.

[April Callahan]

Did you know that? You can now listen to Dressed ad free for just $3 a month. Check out the link in our Show Notes or in our Instagram link tree to subscribe to our exclusive content, which is the ad free version of Dressed. You can also find Ann Lo American, the exhibition catalog on our dressed [e-mail] Shop dressed and be assured that your purchase benefits an independent bookseller. Every time you shop from our bookshelf, you will find not only this title, but more than 100 of our other favorites or featured fashion history [e-mail] shop dress.

[Cassidy Zachary]

You can also find Dress listeners a direct link to purchase the book in our Show Notes as well as a direct link to our bookshop.

[April Callahan]

Thank you as always for tuning in and more dress coming your way on Thursday. The History of Fashion is a production of Dressed Media.

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