Little-known fashion designer Ann Lowe is undergoing the celluloid process with the support of Serena Williams and Ruth E. Carter.
Sony’s Tristar will release “The Dress,” based on Piper Huguley’s historical fiction book “By Her Own Design.” The biopic will focus on Lowe’s experience creating the wedding dress Jacqueline Bouvier wore to marry John F. Kennedy in 1953 — years before her presidential run. For a long time, Lowe was not publicly known for her elaborate custom designs.
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Lowe died in 1981 at the age of 82. Despite his 50-year career that included designing that historic dress and becoming a go-to designer for socialites such as Marjorie Merriweather Post, the Rockefellers, the Roosevelts, and the H. F. du Pont family in the 1950s and 1960s, Lowe’s career was largely forgotten during his lifetime. Even further back, another of Lowe’s wealthy socialite clients was the mother of the future first lady, Janet Lee Bouvier, who wore one of Lowe’s designs when she married Hugh Auchincloss in 1942.
Williams, who founded Nine Two Six Productions last year, and two-time Oscar-winning costume designer Carter will produce the feature. Carter, who will also handle costume design, said she was excited to be involved in developing the film, which “shines a well-deserved spotlight on Ann Lowe, the first black female couturier on Madison Avenue and the brilliant mind behind Jackie Bouvier’s iconic wedding dress.”
“Ann’s contributions to fashion have been overlooked for too long, and this is a time when stories like hers need to be brought to light and celebrated,” said Carter. “As a pioneer myself, I understand firsthand the challenges and triumphs of overcoming obstacles. Through her story, we hope to inspire future generations to dream, push boundaries, and know that they too can achieve greatness, just as she did.”
Born in Clayton, Alabama, Lowe learned to sew at age 5 from her mother, Janine Cole Lowe, and her grandmother, Georgia Thompkins, both well-known seamstresses at the time. When she was 16, her mother died unexpectedly, forcing the designer to take over the family business. A few years later, she moved to Tampa, Fla., where a chance encounter at a department store by Tampa socialite Josephine Edwards Lee complimented Lowe on his clothing and he was offered a job as a seamstress in her home.
Despite her first husband’s disapproval, Lowe moved into her family’s mansion with her son. Later, with the support of her employer, Lowe enrolled in the S. T. Taylor School of Design in New York City. Lowe attended classes alone in a room at the segregated school, but still outperformed her classmates in half the time required. In the city, Lowe continued to design for Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and her own eponymous business. Lowe moved to New York City in 1928 and gained a loyal, wealthy clientele at a time when black-owned businesses were rare.
Lowe’s reputation for intricate designs, lace-lined wedding dresses, and artificial flowers led to her being chosen to design Kennedy’s wedding dress and bridesmaids’ dresses for the future president. After a flood at her shop 10 days before the wedding ruined her wedding dress and bridesmaids’ dresses, Lowe worked overtime to make new ones, at extra cost and at her own expense. It was no easy task. The gown alone was made from 50 yards of ivory silk taffeta and featured the dramatic Christian Dior-inspired “New Look” silhouette. With a narrow bodice and portrait neckline, the dress was decorated with a sweeping skirt and interlocking fabric bands that required a “trapunto” stitching technique using ruffles and concentric circles for a tiered effect.
Throughout her career, Lowe faced financial difficulties at times, including being underpaid by clients who sometimes took advantage of her. Her many creations included an ivory gown decorated with handmade fabric rose vines and a sleeveless black cocktail dress with handmade pink flower details.
Ann Lowe’s original haute couture designs are on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, while Kennedy’s 1953 wedding dress is part of the permanent collection at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Carter said Wednesday.
Although this will be the first time Carter and Williams have worked together, Carter says, “There’s an intellectual familiarity that we share in terms of needing to create real women’s stories that build us and move us forward. Serena cares so much and is so vocal in the meetings as we build and develop.” [the film.] “She too has shattered the status quo in her career and can understand this woman’s journey.”
“But I will have the costume design,” Carter added.
An executive from Nine Two Six Productions acknowledged the media’s request but was not immediately available for an interview on Wednesday.
WWD first wrote about Lowe in 1960, describing the designer as “Neiman Marcus’ ‘secret’ source for super-elaborate prom dresses”; she had previously been tapped to design for Neiman’s by Saks Fifth Avenue. At the time, Lowe was making her dresses at Miss Madison’s, but by 1961 she was planning to go out on her own. Four years later, Lowe and Florence Cowell founded A. F. Chantilly Inc., a wholesale and retail business selling only her own products at the boutique. At the time, prom dresses, wedding dresses and debutante dresses were selling for $200 and up wholesale; coats started at $350 and suits were upwards of $300. She also opened her own store, Ann Lowe Originals, on Madison Avenue in the mid-’60s, the first for a Black business owner at the time.
It’s only in the last few years that her career and creations have come into clearer focus through museum exhibitions. A year ago, her largest exhibition to date, “Ann Lowe: American Couturier,” debuted at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Wilmington, Del. In December 2023, a dress designed by Lowe was featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute’s “Women Who Designed,” more than 60 years after the garment was first made.
“Finally, finally — he’s getting his due,” Linda A. Dixon, Lowe’s great-granddaughter who has championed his legacy for decades and attended a media preview at The Met last year, told WWD.
Dixon’s literary agent, Sharon Parker-Frazier of Crystal Ship Artists, said she and Dixon have been in contact with the production about their possible involvement in the film.
Katya Roelse, who prepared a replica of Kennedy’s wedding dress for the Winterthur exhibition after spending three days at the JFK Library and Museum taking “hundreds” of photos of the garment, examining it inside and out and measuring every inch, said she spoke with Carter about the possibility of consulting on the film and that she aimed to “represent the dress as it really was and help tell Ann Lowe’s story accurately as it relates to the dress.”
“The JFK archives will no longer display the dress because it is in ‘damaged’ condition – it has tears in the waistband – and from a conservative’s perspective, it would not be ethical or respectful,” said Roelse, a professor of fashion design at the University of Delaware.
Lowe’s work was also featured in the Costume Institute’s “In America: A Fashion Anthology” exhibition in 2022. Decades earlier, in 1989, Lowe’s designs were featured at “The Spirit of Seventh Avenue,” an event celebrating black designers held at the New York Hilton.
More recently, in a 2020 interview with WWD, fashion designer B Michael noted that while some names like Oscar de la Renta and Christian Dior have lived on for years after their founders have passed away, Lowe’s has not. “Ann Lowe should be a viable brand right now, but it’s not,” he said at the time.
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