LIFESTYLE
Fashionable You
HAUTE HISTORY ANN COLE LOWE
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY RACHEL ELSPETH GROSS IN THE VINTAGE WOMAN
A
ccording to fashion lore, when Dior examined a piece designed by Ann Cole Lowe he was astounded by her craftsmanship, he had to immediately know: “Who made this gown?” Lowe designed the dress that Jacqueline Bouvier wore when she married Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1953, and all the dresses worn by the bridal party. It is one of the most remembered wedding gowns ever; fifty yards “of silk taffeta… embellished with interwoven bands of tucking, finished with a portrait neckline and a bouffant skirt.” The New York Times covered the event, dress included Lowe was not mentioned. When asked, even when she was married to Onassis, Jackie would say that it had been made by “a colored woman.” One of the first African American fashion designers to receive international acclaim, Lowe’s designs were favored by high society women for forty years—from the 1920s through the 1960s. Born around 1898 in Clayton, Alabama (exact date 22 MAY 2021
Celebrating 10 Years
unknown), Lowe’s great-grandmother had been enslaved, and had a daughter by the plantation owner in a despicable era of American history where a person of color was property. The child, Georgia Tompkins, was born enslaved, but was emancipated when purchased by a freeman, General Cole.
Janet Auchincloss, Jackie’s mother, had commissioned her own wedding dress from Lowe in 1942 for her second marriage. Auchincloss also brought her daughter Lee to Lowe for a wedding gown about six months or so before Jackie’s wedding in 1953. Ultimately, Lee’s dress was designed by Pauline Trigère, which they thought would be cheaper. For Jackie’s dress, Lowe charged about $500, approximately $5,000 today; a similar dress would sell for $1,500 in the same year. Pricing was a constant problem throughout Lowe’s career—she never charged enough for her work. Lowe saw dressing the woman who would become the Senator’s wife to be an honor. But ten days before the wedding a pipe broke in Lowe’s atelier, flooding her studio. Jackie’s gown, which had taken two months to create, was destroyed, as were most of the dresses for the wedding party. Lowe was devastated but rallied and found a solution. The designer ordered more fabrics, and her team worked
