The Black Designer Behind Jackie Kennedy's Wedding Dress

Ann Lowe spent nearly forty years dressing America's oldest, richest families, the Auchinclosses, the du Ponts, the Rockefellers, including designing Jacqueline Bouvier's 1953 wedding dress to John F. Kennedy, one of the most reproduced wedding gowns in American history. She built her career under segregation, survived a flood that destroyed the wedding dress ten days before the ceremony, and was never publicly credited for it at the time: Jacqueline Kennedy herself once described her only as "a coloured woman dressmaker." This episode covers Lowe's start in Clayton, Alabama, her training in a segregated New York classroom, an uncredited Oscar-winning gown for Olivia de Havilland, the business collapse that followed her son's death, and the recognition that only arrived decades after her own death in 1981. ------------- Find our Podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music or where ever you listen to your podcasts. We have a Substack as well - https://thefashionmemoir1.substack.com/ ------------- Watch our other videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM3OqLHVo6eGkl86dsCJlWdQg9UNuNoWm https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM3OqLHVo6eH5hSfUOdjVzGLZxfJOKbeG -------------- 💬 Which fashion icon should we explore next? Let me know what you think in the comments. 👍 Like, 🔔 subscribe, and click the bell so you never miss an icon. https://www.youtube.com/@TheFashionMemoir ✨ Remember: in fashion as in life, be fearless and fabulous — this is The Fashion Memoir