Saturday, February 1, 2014

Culture Queen Moment: Anne Cole Lowe, Black Fashion Icon

Photo from BlackBride.com

Happy Black History Month guys! I'm starting the month off by enlightening you guys on some little known Black History, and guess what it's also Fashion History! Contrary to popular belief June Ambrose was not the first Black Fashion Icon, I'm kidding! But if one asked you guys who are some noteworthy characters in fashion who are black we'd run off Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks, June Ambrose, and we'd probably struggle to to think of others. Well I'm here to help widen your repertoires, and mines! I was strolling through my Instagram feed and ran across a picture similar to the one above by @harlemsfashionrow telling me to get the deets on the pic from @tallglassofstyle . Here I learned about Anne Cole Lowe, the not so famed African American designer. Her MAJ moment was designing Jacqueline Kennedy's wedding dress AND her ten bridesmaids' dresses!

It doesn't stop there, two days before the wedding a water line burst and it completely ruined the dresses. Lowe remade all the dresses in RECORD TIME!!! Can you image, we're talking one dress that used 50 yards of silk taffeta. Take that Dior!!! Lowe also designed dresses for the likes of the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers. She was know has high society's "best kept secret" because she was a black woman. Google her! Happy Black History Month! I'll be scouring my sources to uncover more like Anne Cole Lowe.