February is Black History Month. To acknowledge the history of design, vintage, and black women, here are two designers you should know. Elizabeth Keckley and Ann Lowe are both known for designing clothing for Presidents’ wives. These two black designers stand out in history because the women they designed for were two of the most famous first ladies of our country. Elizabeth Keckley was not only Mary Todd Lincoln’s seamstress, she was also a friend and confidante. Ann Lowe designed Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding dress. There is far more to both these women than these achievements however. As black women, they both faced hurdles throughout their lives which contemporaries were not subjected to. These were not their only moments of fleeting fame. Both women were activists in their own right.
Elizabeth Keckley was born a slave. She learned to sew from her mother who was also enslaved by the Burwell family in Virginia. She eventually was able to buy freedom for both herself and her son. An eventual move to Washington D.C. and her skill as a seamstress brought her a clientele which included wives of important political men including senators and the president. Lizzy, as she was known, and Mary Todd Lincoln became much more than business associates. They considered themselves the closest of friends.
As well as being an excellent seamstress and eventually employing 20 women, she founded a relief organization to help support black folks who had fled slavery. Her organization distributed food, shelter, clothing, and medical care to those in need. In addition, she wrote a book about her life including her childhood as a slave and her years working with the Lincoln family.
Ann Lowe learned to sew from her grandmother and mother, who were professional seamstresses. She is best known for designing the wedding dress for Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding to Senator John F. Kennedy even though she was not credited until after his death. Lowe’s activism took a different form than Keckley. She was noted for stating that the point of her career was “to prove that a Negro can become a major dress designer.” Long before she was tapped to make Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding gown by Janet Lee Auchincloss (Jacqueline’s mother), she designed for the women of the Rockefeller, Roosevelt, Du Pont families and more. Her career brought her from Alabama to New York, Florida, and back to New York again. She worked for years at Saks Fifth Avenue as the exclusive Bridal, Ball and Coronation dress designer.
Ann had been designing dresses for high society women beginning in 1920, shortly after graduating from design school. As the school was segregated, she was isolated from the rest of the students. Even with that disadvantage, she was able to graduate in half the time required and her work was used as examples for the rest of the students. Janet Lee Auchincloss had hired Lowe to design her wedding gown in 1942 and was a lifelong customer.
Although Jacqeuline would have preferred a French designer gown, her mother employed Lowe to create not only Jackie’s dress but the dresses for her bridal attendants as well. Just ten day prior to the wedding Lowe’s studio flooded due to a broken pipe and the wedding gown along with ten of the 15 bridal attendant’s dresses were ruined. Lowe and her team worked overtime to recreate the dresses in time for the wedding. She never mentioned the incident to the Kennedy family, and incurred the costs to replace all the dresses herself.
These two women were pioneers in Black History. Not only did they endure bias due to race and gender, but they prospered beyond expectation in their field and beyond. Both women are remembered for the doors they opened within the clothing design industry. They are both designers you should know.
For more designers you should know, check out our Design Icon series here.
