Ann Lowe: The Overlooked Couturier Behind Jacqueline Kennedy's Iconic Wedding Dress

Jacqueline Kennedy's Iconic Wedding Dress

In September 1953, Jacqueline Bouvier married Senator John F. Kennedy in what was hailed as the social event of the year in Newport, Rhode Island. The bride's gown—a voluminous ivory silk taffeta creation with a portrait neckline, pleated bodice, bouffant skirt adorned with tiny wax flowers, and a dramatic New Look silhouette—instantly captured worldwide attention. Yet the designer responsible for this masterpiece, along with the entire bridal party's outfits, received no public credit at the time. Her name was Ann Lowe, one of America's most extraordinary yet underrecognized couturiers of the mid-20th century.

Early Life and Training in a Family of Seamstresses

Born Ann Cole Lowe on December 14, 1898, in Clayton, Alabama (raised in Montgomery), Lowe came from a lineage of skilled dressmakers. Her grandmother, Georgia Thompkins, had been enslaved until around 1860, when her husband purchased her freedom; she and Lowe's mother, Janie Cole (an embroidery specialist), ran a successful business creating gowns for Montgomery's elite white society. Lowe absorbed these skills from a young age, crafting floral embellishments from garden scraps that would become her signature.

After her mother's sudden death when Lowe was 16, she took over a high-profile commission (gowns for the governor's wife or New Year's orders for wealthy clients), establishing her talent. She briefly married Lee Cone (with whom she had son Arthur Lee, later her business partner), but left him to pursue her career, moving to Tampa, Florida, where she became a live-in dressmaker for a prominent socialite.

Rise to Prominence and Move to New York

Lowe excelled at the S.T. Taylor Design School in New York (enrolling around 1917–1919), where she was the only Black student and often worked in a segregated space—but her instructors held her work up as exemplary. She opened her first salon in Tampa in 1920, then returned to New York in 1928 with savings to build her career. By the 1940s–50s, she worked on commission for luxury retailers like Henri Bendel and Saks Fifth Avenue, and in 1950 opened Ann Lowe's Gowns on Lexington Avenue, specializing in one-of-a-kind couture with intricate handwork, trapunto quilting, and her famed three-dimensional fabric flowers.en.wikipedia.org

Her clients included generations of high-society families (Rockefellers, Du Ponts, Whitneys, Auchinclosses, Roosevelts) and notables like Olivia de Havilland (whose 1947 Oscar dress she designed, though credited under another name at the time). Christian Dior praised her skills after meeting her in the 1940s.

The Kennedy Wedding Commission and the Flood Drama

Janet Lee Auchincloss (Jacqueline's mother) had previously hired Lowe for her own wedding dress (1942) and her daughters' debutante gowns. For Jacqueline's 1953 wedding, Lowe was commissioned to create the bride's gown and all bridal party dresses—at a cost of about $500 for the main gown (roughly $6,000 today). The piece used around 50 yards of ivory silk taffeta, featuring interwoven tucking, scalloped hems, rosettes, and wax orange blossoms.

Ten days (or about two weeks, per some accounts) before the wedding, a flood destroyed the nearly completed garments in Lowe's New York atelier. Undeterred, she and her team worked tirelessly, sourcing new fabric at her own expense and recreating everything in time for delivery. She never mentioned the disaster to the client and absorbed the financial loss. On delivery day, Lowe insisted on using the front entrance rather than the service door at the Auchincloss estate.

The dress received glowing press coverage (e.g., in The New York Times), but Lowe's name was omitted. When asked about the designer, Jacqueline reportedly described her dismissively as "a colored dressmaker," and credit wasn't widely attributed to Lowe until the mid-1960s.

Systemic Barriers and "Society's Best-Kept Secret"

Despite her brilliance, Lowe faced profound racism and class barriers. Clients often haggled prices down, leaving her with slim profits despite the labor-intensive work and staff costs. She entered homes via service entrances, and her contributions were frequently anonymized to preserve the clients' social prestige. In 1964, The Saturday Evening Post aptly called her "Society’s Best-Kept Secret." Financial setbacks—including losing her salon to unpaid taxes, bankruptcy, and health issues (glaucoma leading to eye removal)—plagued her later years, though an anonymous benefactor helped her reopen on Madison Avenue in 1968. She retired in 1972.

Enduring Legacy

Ann Lowe passed away on February 25, 1981, in Queens, New York. Today, her legacy is finally gaining the appreciation it deserves. Her gowns reside in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, and others. Major exhibitions, such as the 2023–2024 "Ann Lowe: American Couturier" at Winterthur Museum, books (including historical fiction like By Her Own Design), and children's biographies have spotlighted her technical mastery, floral artistry, and resilience.

Ann Lowe was not just a dressmaker—she was a couturier whose work shaped American high fashion amid systemic exclusion. Her story reminds us of the countless overlooked talents who built history behind the scenes. Jacqueline Kennedy's wedding dress endures as a symbol of elegance, but now it also stands as a testament to Lowe's brilliance and perseverance.