Something to Prove
A biography of Ann Lowe, America's Forgotten Designer
For any designer, designing the wedding dress to be worn by Jacqueline Bouvier, future First Lady of the United States, for her marriage to John F. Kennedy would be a lifetime achievement.
For Ann Lowe, it became a statement.
The iconic gown would become the most photographed wedding gown in American history, proving that (in Ann’s own words) “a Negro can become a major dress designer.
”Years earlier, as the sun rose on the morning of Ann’s birth, no one in the small town of Clayton, Alabama, could have dreamed of the heights she would achieve for she was born a squirming, scrawny, little black girl in the Jim Crow South, but from an early age she recognized her dreams.
Ann's path would not be easy, and any success she might have was certain to be achieved only with steadfast effort and fortitude.
Armed with great inner strength and natural talent, Ann rose above all obstacles and forged her own future. When she designed and produced Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding dress, very few knew her name.
And no one but her staff knew of the disaster that preceded the delivery of that now-historic wedding dress to the bride's home.
Even fewer knew that she was the granddaughter of a former slave.
Even today, few know her story.
