Winterthur Museum’s exhibit spotlighting Ann Lowe – the first successful Black fashion designer in America - is now open.
In 1964, the Saturday Evening Post hailed the fashion designer Ann Lowe as “Society’s Best Kept Secret”. Lowe designed Jackie Kennedy’s 1953 wedding dress and was popular among other society notables of the time, including Olivia deHaviland, the Rothschilds and the DuPonts.
The Winterhur presents 40 of her gowns, many that have never been on public display, illuminating Lowe’s design evolution from the 1920s to the 1960s. Elizabeth Way from The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology is guest curator of the exhibition. Way is also the lead author of Winterthur’s upcoming book on Lowe. She says Lowe’s race did not stop a steady flow of patrons.
“But she was also in this nebulous position as a dressmaker, as a fashion designer, and she wasn’t necessarily very well publicized during her life. So there were certain dynamics about class and especially race that did impact her,” said Way.
The Winterhur’s Kim Collison, Curator of Exhibitions, says the museum's long-running research on Lowe’s work and the facility’s curatorial strength made Winterthur the perfect location for the exhibit.
“Because so many of these pieces had been in private collections or are newer to museums, many of them required a great deal of conservation, and Winterhur, with our conservation labs, was able to really conserve the pieces to make them exhibitable here” said Collison.
The Winterhur’s exhibit Ann Lowe: American Couturier is the largest of Lowe’s work to date and runs through January 7th.
Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
