As Black History Month begins, the Historic Costume and Textiles Collection at The Ohio State University’s College of Education and Human Ecology (EHE) is celebrating the legacy of legendary Black fashion designer Ann Rowe. Widely recognized as the first nationally recognized Black American fashion designer, Rowe is the subject of a new book and a recently unveiled and upcoming exhibition at the National First Ladies Library in Canton.
Gayle Strege, curator of the Historic Costume and Textile Collection, said Rowe’s historical significance as the first Black designer recognized for her distinctive style cannot be overstated.
“There were a lot of black dressmakers and designers but their names weren’t necessarily on the label,” she says. “There was a lack of recognition for dressmakers, so I’m happy to be able to bring it all to light.”
Rowe’s designs include a distinctive debutante dress that is in the Historic Costume and Textiles Collection. Rowe also designed the wedding dress for Jacqueline Bouvier, who married then-Senator and future President John F. Kennedy in 1953. A replica of that wedding dress will be on display at the National First Ladies’ Library starting in May, said Alison Kaplan, the library’s education director.
Overcoming difficulties to succeed
Rowe was born in rural Alabama in 1898. The granddaughter of slaves, she learned to sew and make clothes from her mother and grandmother, whose family ran a seamstress business making clothes for the governor of Alabama and other state officials.
Lowe rose to fame as a designer in the mid-20th century, and her life and career have been documented in several books, including author Piper Huguely’s new book, “By Her Own Design: A Novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register.” Huguely spoke about Lowe’s work during a virtual presentation hosted by the First Lady’s Library on February 1.
In conversation with Kaplan, Huguely said her historical novel pays tribute to Lowe. The book chronicles the dresses Lowe designed for such notable clients as the Kennedys, Rockefellers, du Ponts and Oscar-winning actress Olivia de Havilland, who wore a Lowe dress when she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for “A Life for Two.”
“When I saw what Anne’s life was like, I immediately knew it could be turned into a novel,” Huguely said. “From what I first saw, it was clear that I could write a historical novel about Anne Lowe.”
Rowe, the heroine of her own inspiring story, often overcame adversity, including thriving in a highly competitive industry at a time when women and African-Americans struggled to achieve equality. She also battled glaucoma and retired in 1972 due to vision problems.
Valuable relics discovered among thrift store donations
Before Rowe’s debutante dress was acquired by the Historic Costume and Textile Collection, the garment had belonged for decades to Columbus resident Jim Gessner, the son of Florence Cowell Gessner, one of Rowe’s collaborators on Rowe’s AF Chantilly fashion label, whose company operated the label.
After AF Chantilly New York closed, Gessner kept a collection of dresses made by Kawell Gessner and debutante dresses made by Rowe.
“He took the Ann Lowe gown to the First Community Church clothing thrift store and gave it to them,” said Gessner’s niece, Elizabeth McAllister, who also lives in central Ohio, and Cowell Gessner’s granddaughter. “He had it in storage for 50 years.”
Fortunately, an employee at Tri-Village Trading Post thrift store recognized the unique quality of the handmade, floral-adorned, gold freshman dress donated by Gessner and contacted Ohio State University about the possibility of acquiring it.
When a First Community employee contacted Strege, “I said, ‘Yeah, how did you get her dress? It’s so rare,'” she said. “She only designs unique dresses, so there won’t be many on the market.”
Rowe’s legacy lives on
In addition to historical costume and textile collections, Rowe’s designs are included in notable museums such as the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
The First Lady’s Library acquired a replica of Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding dress from the personal collection of Monte Durham, host of the TLC reality show “Say Yes to the Dress.”
“There’s no question that Jacqueline Kennedy’s dress was a masterpiece,” Kaplan said. “We wanted to create a dress that would get the Kennedys in the magazines, that would thrust[John F. Kennedy]into the limelight, that would be a kind of spectacle.”
In a tragic twist of fate, the bride’s and bridesmaid’s dresses that Rowe designed for the Bouvier/Kennedy wedding were destroyed when a pipe burst in Rowe’s New York City workroom just 10 days before the ceremony. With her characteristic tenacity, the designer forged ahead and painstakingly remade the dresses at her own expense.
Unfortunately for Rowe and other black designers of the time, losing money was commonplace: Despite their wealth and privilege, Rowe’s clients, many of whom were women, belittled her work because of her race, underpaid her, and rarely gave her due credit for her designs, Huguely says.
“This is how black people had to behave in the first half of the 20th century,” she said. “It’s uncomfortable to look back on and think about, but it was a historical reality.”
Strege said he hopes that having Rowe’s designs in the university’s collection, the First Lady’s Library and other museums around the country will increase awareness of the contributions of Black fashion designers.
“A lot of African-Americans have been erased from our history, so it’s great to have an example of her activism,” she said. “To be able to share that history is a good thing that’s coming to light.”
Rowe’s debut gown can be seen in a video on the EHE Teaching & Learning Design YouTube channel. (The gown is currently in storage pending upcoming renovations of Campbell Hall on Ohio State University’s Columbus campus, where the collection is housed.)
For more information about Ohio State University’s Historic Costume and Textile Collection, visit Costum.osu.edu. For more information about the First Ladies Library’s upcoming exhibition of a reproduction of Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding dress, visit Firstladies.org.
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