Elizabeth Way, editor of Black Designers in American Fashion and Associate Curator of Costume at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, hosted a digital presentation for The New York Society Library as part of their Fabulous Fashion exhibition. I was more than excited to attend and learn, as Black American fashion is near and dear to my heart. During the presentation, Way discussed traditional media’s coverage of Black fashion designers. Way found newspapers to be the best and most abundant resource when researching 19th and early 20th-century Black fashion designers. Newspaper clippings and scans were so useful that Way was able to track the migration of Black New Yorkers post-emancipation, through Reconstruction, and into the Civil Rights Movement within the city using the advertisements for dressmakers and tailors. These same newspapers also give insight into women’s work and how Black women used dressmaking as a stepping stone into the middle class. Focusing on the 19th century through to the early 80s, Way explained the problems Black designers had gaining visibility and funding, as well as receiving credit for their designs. Such problems sadly persist today.

Way immediately dispelled the long-held belief that Black designers just magically appeared in the fashion industry in the 1960s. Way began to obliterate this myth by telling us the story of Elizabeth Keckley.

Elizabeth Keckley may be a familiar name to you if you paid attention to the 2022 Met Gala Red Carpet. Sarah Jessica Parker’s awe-inspiring dress was designed in ode to Keckley. Elizabeth Keckley was born a slave of mixed race – her father was her owner – in 1818. Her mother was a highly skilled dressmaker and passed down the technical knowledge to Keckley at an early age. Keckley was so skilled at dressmaking that she would go on to earn enough money to buy her freedom in 1855. From there, Elizabeth Keckley would go on to become one of the most important dressmakers in Washington, D.C. The Evening Post, the leading daily newspaper in D.C. at the time, named her as such in an article published in 1862. Such acclaim and coverage resulted in Keckley being one of the first Black designers ever celebrated in American papers. The fact that Keckley sewed for elite white women greatly factored into this coverage and subsequent historical record. Keckley was so skilled, and her work was so revered that she became the personal dressmaker of Mary Todd Lincoln. 

Keckley designed at a time when fabrics were exorbitantly expensive, even for the wealthy. A by-product of this great expense was the clientele preferring ensembles that could easily and seamlessly be mix-and-matched or effectively upcycled. For this reason, it is hard to correctly credit a significant amount of Keckley’s designs back to her. Another interesting result of the great cost of fabrics: Keckley seemed to exclusively design for elite white women, even those with opposing political positions. To be a formerly enslaved Black businesswoman in the nation’s capital at a time when tensions were so high that a civil war eventually broke out, that was quite a feat.

Ann Lowe was a third-generation dressmaker who rose to prominence during Reconstruction. Lowe’s talents were discovered in a department store, as her soon-to-be employer asked who made her clothing, and hired her on the spot when Lowe identified herself as the dressmaker. Lowe then took her young baby and moved from Alabama to Tampa, Florida to live with the woman and make dresses for her employer and her four daughters. Overtime, word of mouth spread through her employer’s network, consisting of alike elite white women, and Lowe steadily built up a clientele. In these circles, dressmakers of Lowe’s skills were coveted and often not shared. but Lowe earned enough to establish her own atelier in which she hired and trained all of her Black women workers. Lowe’s specialty was wedding dresses and debutante gowns. She made custom, handmade dresses on the level of Parisian couture and was known for her embellishments, especially for her handmade flowers. In the early stages of her career, Lowe dressed as a maid to tend to wives on their wedding day. This speaks to her commitment to her excellent designs and the station of Black workers in the South. 

Lowe eventually made her way up north to New York City. In New York, she was so well known in the Black community that New York Age, one of the most influential Black newspapers at the time, hired her as a fashion correspondent and sent her across the Atlantic to cover Paris fashion. This position established her as a fashion authority in the Black community and gives insight into the time and culture that influenced her new instance on being referred to as a “Negro fashion designer” in favor of “colored woman dressmaker” as many white-led media outlets tended to say. Of course, that’s when they did credit her, as Anne Lowe did run into problems with being credited for many years.

Lowe made Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding dress and worked for the Kennedy’s for a considerable amount of time. While being her most critically acclaimed dress, Lowe did not receive credit for designing Jacqueline’s dress for many years. However, Vogue did credit she in 1955 for Jacqueline’s step-sister’s, Nina Auchinclass, debutante dress. Lowe receieved a noticeable uptick in good press during the Civil Rights Movement. Her work was featured in Vogue numerous times and she’d receive a whole spread in Ebony magazine in 1964. In the same year Saturday Evening Post did a special feature on Anne Lowe, calling her “society’s best-kept secret.” The article’s subheading elaborates, “Rich women pass her name among themselves — some have even cheated her. But few outsiders have heard of Ann Lowe, the only Negro to become a leading American dress designer.” But by 1972, Lowe retired due to her deteriorating eyesight and other health concerns.

Toward the end of the presentation, Way introduced us to Scott Barrie, a brilliant designer who perfectly bridged the gap between the old and the new.

Scott Barrie, born Neal Clyde Barr, also learned how to sew from his grandmother. Throughout the 1960s the young designer took whatever jobs within the industry that he could, including an apprenticeship with Arthur McGee and a sketch artist job at Vogue Patterns. Eventually, Barrie became undeniable and cemented himself as a women’s wear designer that made the trends. A true designer of his time, he was heavily featured in Women’s Wear Daily and Vogue in the 1970s, his designs were a mainstay at Studio 54, and he was one of the first designers to truly embrace commercialization. Barrie famously explored the dexterity of soft jersey knits, making them elegant for nightwear. He crafted patterns to be shared in Vogue, and even expanded into denim and swimwear. By the 1980s, the media’s fascination with the “newfound” existence of Black fashion designers wore off, resulting in a steep decrease in their visibility and once again, accreditation. Barrie was one of the many Black designers who suddenly fell out of mainstream media’s coverage cycle despite his designs enduring popularity.

Black American fashion designers have left behind extraordinary legacies. They have left us many stories to tell, creations to gawk at, and cultural gifts to bask in. As Black fashion designers of today continue to fight for equity within the industry, it is important that we learn, share and actively record Black fashion history. We are undeniable.