Ann Lowe was "the company's best-kept secret." This exhibition aims to make her a household name.

Style Points is a weekly column on how fashion intersects with the rest of the world.

When you think of sewing, what comes to mind? Parisian sweets floating on a catwalk, most likely. But American designer Ann Lowe's bespoke creations for social fixtures, from Jackie Kennedy to Marjorie Merriweather Post, certainly qualify, if not in the strictest sense, for Chamber Syndicale approval. .

Starting September 9, Lowe's historic work will be on display at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Delaware. "Ann Lowe: American Couturier" was originally the dream project of the late textile historian Margaret Powell, who worked as a cataloger at the museum. While some retrospectives serve as a stamp on a designer's legacy, this one is a little more open-ended. Guest curator Elizabeth Way and her colleagues hope it will draw public attention to a designer who deserves to be better known, who fought against racism and poverty while creating for the elites of the mid-century, a woman which was the subject of the Saturday Evening Post. once dubbed “society’s best kept secret.”

Ann Lowe, photographed for the December 1966 issue of Ebony magazine.
Courtesy of Ford Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Smithsonian Institution
The show might as well be subtitled "CSI: Fashion" for all the detective work it requires. There was no official temperature-controlled archive to work on, and not all of his creations were accounted for. Way, who is the FIT Museum's assistant curator of costumes, tells me that an APB was issued for uncatalogued Ann Lowe dresses: "People were contacting us and saying, 'I have a photo, I have a dress , I have a story. Not to mention that recreating one of Lowe's most famous creations (we'll talk more about that in a moment) involved tracing his stitches, Sherlock Holmes style.

Lowe grew up in Alabama at the turn of the century, learning to sew from his grandmother, who had been a schoolteacher...

Fashion Sep 9, 2023 0 46 Add to Reading List

Ann Lowe was "the company's best-kept secret." This exhibition aims to make her a household name.

Style Points is a weekly column on how fashion intersects with the rest of the world.

When you think of sewing, what comes to mind? Parisian sweets floating on a catwalk, most likely. But American designer Ann Lowe's bespoke creations for social fixtures, from Jackie Kennedy to Marjorie Merriweather Post, certainly qualify, if not in the strictest sense, for Chamber Syndicale approval. .

Starting September 9, Lowe's historic work will be on display at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Delaware. "Ann Lowe: American Couturier" was originally the dream project of the late textile historian Margaret Powell, who worked as a cataloger at the museum. While some retrospectives serve as a stamp on a designer's legacy, this one is a little more open-ended. Guest curator Elizabeth Way and her colleagues hope it will draw public attention to a designer who deserves to be better known, who fought against racism and poverty while creating for the elites of the mid-century, a woman which was the subject of the Saturday Evening Post. once dubbed “society’s best kept secret.”

doyen of fashion designers, Ann Lowe of New York, who has been creating beautiful dresses and handmade flowers since the age of six. She is pictured with London model Judith Palmer, wearing a dress Lowe theater dress and an Italian mecado silk coat, with black lace re-embroidered in black soutache moneta sleet, jrljohnson Publishing Archive

Ann Lowe, photographed for the December 1966 issue of Ebony magazine.

Courtesy of Ford Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Smithsonian Institution

The show might as well be subtitled "CSI: Fashion" for all the detective work it requires. There was no official temperature-controlled archive to work on, and not all of his creations were accounted for. Way, who is the FIT Museum's assistant curator of costumes, tells me that an APB was issued for uncatalogued Ann Lowe dresses: "People were contacting us and saying, 'I have a photo, I have a dress , I have a story. Not to mention that recreating one of Lowe's most famous creations (we'll talk more about that in a moment) involved tracing his stitches, Sherlock Holmes style.

Lowe grew up in Alabama at the turn of the century, learning to sew from his grandmother, who had been a schoolteacher...