By Her Own Design

Ann Cole Lowe was “one of America’s most significant designers” and the “first African American to have a shop on the famed fashion retail strip” of Madison Avenue in New York City (Nichols, Elaine. “Ann Lowe.” National Museum of African American History and Culture). Living from 1898 to 1981, Ann was born in Clayton, Alabama, to a family of seamstresses. Ann learned to sew from her mother, Janie, and grandmother Georgia. They created clothing for elite, wealthy women. Most accounts state that Ann worked on dresses by age six and crafted her signature cloth flowers by age 10.

Janie died suddenly in 1914, right before Ann got married. Various sources then state that Ann married Lee Cohen (changed to Cone in the book for pronunciation) when she was as young as 12 or as old as 16. In fact, “there are numerous inconsistencies related to Lowe’s early life, including her actual year of birth, age at the time of her first marriage, and whether she was widowed when she left Alabama for Florida” (“Ann Lowe”). Ann had her only child, Arthur, with Lee.

Due to a chance encounter with Mrs. Josephine Lee, Ann became a live-in seamstress for the Lee family in Florida. This prompted her success, including her attendance at the prestigious S. T. Taylor Design School in New York City. The school was segregated, and Ann had to study in a separate classroom because classmates refused to share the same space. The “sad irony was that Lowe’s design abilities were far superior to her classmates, and her creations were used as models of exceptional work for the other students” (“Ann Lowe”). Her struggles at design school are blatant examples of racism in the US during this time period.

When Ann returned to Tampa, she continued to sew and married Caleb West in 1920. They remained a couple until 1942. In 1928, Ann and her family moved to New York City. They had several shops there, but after the Great Depression, she needed to partner with other designers such as Hattie Carnegie and Sonia Gowns.

Ann overcame adversity and racism throughout her illustrious career. For example, she designed a dress for Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland. However, she wasn’t given recognition by name since the gown was attributed to Sonia Gown. Later, after Arthur died in a car accident and Ann had accumulated debt, she closed her shop to work in Saks Fifth Avenue, but the “contract was extremely uneven and not to Lowe’s advantage” (“Ann Lowe”). Due to prejudice, Ann wasn’t paid well for her work; she brought coveted clients to Saks but had to “purchase her own supplies and fabrics […] and she had to pay her staff,” all while Saks made the prices, meaning that Ann was “paid significantly less than the labor and materials she put into the dresses” (“Ann Lowe”). Similarly, some of her clientele “asked her for prices that they knew were substantially below what they would have paid a white designer” (“Ann Lowe”). Ann was manipulated based on her race.

Lowe’s “most historically significant commission was […] for the 1953 wedding of Jacqueline Bouvier and then Senator John F. Kennedy” (“Ann Lowe”). A burst pipe ruined the wedding dress and multiple bridal gowns, a story that lives in infamy now but was concealed during the time. Jacqueline’s dress is Ann’s most famous design, and Ann’s legacy “as a couture designer of excellence paved the way for many other Black designers to establish themselves in the fashion world” (“Ann Lowe”).

During her life, Ann designed hundreds of unique garments, and her work appeared in major publications such as Vogue and Vanity Fair. She designed garments for prestigious events such as the Texas Rose Festival. She covered Paris fashion shows, had her work showcased in museums, and more. As an influential fashion icon and designer, she lives on in contemporary designs featuring floral accents and in regal gowns. Known as elite society’s “best kept secret,” Lowe didn’t receive the acclaim or wages she deserved during her life, but she is honored through Huguley’s novel, and her design techniques remain prominent (“Ann Lowe”). Ann paved the way for other successful African American designers and the popularity of custom work.

In By Her Own Design, Ann’s life is portrayed with some creative license. For instance, the plotline accurately showcases her early life as a seamstress with her family, but her mother lives until after Ann is married rather than before, like in real life. Among other adjustments, Ann also didn’t adopt Ruth but mentored a staff member named Ruth Alexander, whom she considered her daughter. As Huguley writes in the Author’s Note, she took liberties to create a cohesive storyline: “I’ve collapsed the number of shops that Ann Lowe owned to three in total and eliminated some of the partnerships that she engaged in for a clearer story line” (4). Huguley also “invented the meeting at the White House between Ann Lowe and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy” because Lowe’s IRS debt was dissolved by an anonymous source (4). Huguley’s commitment to the achievements of Black women in history is evident in her detailed research, storytelling, and choices regarding which aspects of the women’s lives to highlight.