“Finally, finally – he’s getting his comeuppance.”
That’s how Linda Ann Dixon, great-granddaughter of fashion designer Ann Lowe, summed up the importance of featuring the pioneering Black designer’s work in the upcoming “Women Designing Women” exhibition at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Although he was the designer of choice for Marjorie Merriweather Post and other members of the socialite group in the 1950s and 1960s, Lowe remained largely unsung during his lifetime.
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During a media preview at The Met on Monday morning, Dixon sat next to a 1963 Lowe’s dress that had a prime spot in the exhibit. Dixon, wearing a full-length mink coat, silk blouse and an ecru purse with a pearl knot and the words “Protect Black People,” chatted with guests and agreed to pose for a selfie or two. Sharing Lowe’s story is his priority. When asked about the significance of this event, Dixon said, “A lot of emotions are tied together because he and I were so close.” said.
Above all, he wants future generations to be inspired by Lowe’s work and perseverance despite the country’s racial segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. While many consider Lowe the long-uncredited designer of Jackie Kennedy’s 1953 wedding dress, his fashion reach extended to many branches of American society, including the HF du Pont family, the Rockefellers, and the Roosevelts. In addition to the Post, another of Lowe’s high society clients was Kennedy’s mother, Janet Lee Bouvier; She also wore one of Lowe’s designs when she married Hugh Auchincloss in 1942.
Recalling how many times Lowe had been let down by something someone had said about magazine articles or something he had poured his heart out to, Dixon said, “Finally being able to get all of this out there and say, ‘Nana, I hope you hear what’s going on.’ I hope he finally knows his passion is being recognized.”
Dixon, who has been pressing for “30 years or more” for Lowe to get his due, named the late scholar Margaret Powell, Elaine Nichols, a grant advisor for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Elizabeth Way of the FIT Museum. He praised ‘s and Dixon’s agent. Thank you to Sharon Parker-Frazier for doing her part. Noting that his mother also tried, but “unfortunately, she went to the wrong people,” Dixon said that he, too, learned by trial and error and is still learning.
A chance department store encounter with Tampa socialite Josephine Edwards Lee, who complimented Lowe on her attire, resulted in a live-in seamstress job offer. Lowe moved into the family’s mansion with her son, despite her first husband’s disapproval. Later, with the support of his employer, Lowe enrolled at the ST Taylor School of Design in New York City. Lowe took classes alone in a room at the segregated school, but still outperformed his classmates. Lowe would go on to design for Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and the business that bears his name in the city.
Encouraged by the recent interest in Lowe’s work, such as “Ann Lowe: American Couturier” at the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Dixon said, “I want this to be a learning lesson in every aspect for young designers and young business people. I just don’t want them to learn from this [story] but perhaps to profit from it through scholarships awarded in his name.”
This is something Dixon will pursue in the future. A documentary and a film are also in the works, he said, and a book is in development “to correct all previous books containing this type of misinformation.”
Although some of Lowe’s archives are located in museums such as The Met, Dixon also has some archives, while other items were allegedly stolen. When Lowe died in Queens, New York, in 1981, Dixon said he and others were not told in advance that Lowe was ill. The designer lived with Ruth Alexander at Alexander’s home in Queens for the last five years of his life. Alexander was one of Lowe’s former seamstresses who served as his caretaker. After Lowe’s death, Dixon said a relative even said “people went and just took his stuff.” Dixon claims that jewellery, furs, letters, some of Lowe’s designs, valuable works of art and “very expensive gifts from his clients” were taken.
In the summer of 2020, an Ann Lowe dress for AF Chantilly showed up at a thrift store in Upper Arlington, Ohio. The garment is now part of Ohio State University’s Historical Costume and Textiles collection. Ann Lowe for the AF Chantilly label was used by Lowe from the late 1960s. While she designed evening dresses and wedding dresses, another designer, Florence Cowell Gayle, designed the day dresses and suits of the brand. Gayle’s son, Jim Gessner, ran the business that housed the label and donated some of the designs to an Ohio thrift store affiliated with his church.
Regarding Lowe’s inclusion of her in The Met’s “Women Who Dress Women,” Dixon said: “Her heart was bursting with joy. And she didn’t do it for the recognition. She did it because she loved it. You can tell she loved it by the work she did. I don’t think anyone could take away her passion and make it their own.” “It was something he didn’t like to call it.”
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