By her own design : a novel of Ann Lowe, fashion designer to the social register

By her own design A novel of Ann Lowe, fashion designer to the social register

Piper Huguley

Book - 2022

The incredible untold story of how Ann Lowe, a Black woman and granddaughter of slaves, rose above personal struggles and racial prejudice to design and create one of America's most famous wedding dresses of all time for Jackie Kennedy. 1953, New York City. Less than a week before the society wedding of the year where Jacqueline Bouvier will marry John F. Kennedy, a pipe bursts at Ann Lowe’s dress shop and ruins eleven dresses, including the expensive wedding dress, a dress that will be judged by thousands. A Black designer who has fought every step of the way, Ann knows this is only one struggle after a lifetime of them. She and her seamstresses will find the way to re-create the dresses. It may take all day and all night for the n...ext week to accomplish the task, but they will do it. 1918, Tampa. Raised in Jim Crow Alabama, Ann learned the art of sewing from her mother and her grandmother, a former slave, who are the most talented seamstresses in the state. After Ann elopes at twelve with an older man who soon proves himself to be an abusive alcoholic, her dreams of becoming a celebrated designer seem to be put on hold. But then a wealthy Tampa socialite sees Ann’s talent and offers her an amazing opportunity--the chance to sew and design clothing for Florida’s society elite. Taking her young son in the middle of the night, Ann escapes her husband and embarks on the adventure of a lifetime. Based on the true story of one of the most famous designers of the twenties through the sixties who has since been unjustly forgotten, By Her Own Design is an unforgettable novel of determination despite countless obstacles and a triumph celebrated by the world.

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Subjects
Lowe, Ann Cole, > 1898-1981 > Fiction.
Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy, > 1929-1994 > Marriage > Fiction.
African American fashion designers > Fiction.
Wedding costume > Fiction.
Women dressmakers > Fiction.
Historical fiction.
Biographical fiction.
Genres
Historical fiction
Biographical fiction
Published
New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Piper Huguley (author)
Item Description
Includes P.S. Insights, Interviews & More...
Physical Description
367, 7 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN
9780063059740
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

When a pipe bursts in Ann Lowe's studio, she has less than a week to recreate Jacqueline Bouvier's wedding gown. This is not her first taste of hardship, though; she was raised by her seamstress mother and grandmother in Jim Crow--era Alabama, until she marries way too young and finds her way to Florida, where she begins to design for the wealthy women of Tampa. There, her patronesses raise money to send her to design school in New York, and eventually she opens her own shop, first in Harlem, then further down Lexington Avenue, where her white clients are more likely to visit. Huguley's historically sound fictionalization of Lowe's life is long overdue: she is the forgotten Black woman who designed for the social register from the 1920s through the 1960s. Huguley tells the story with lots of genuine heart, from the birth of Ann's beloved son to her time in design school, where she was forced to learn in racially segregated isolation, literally in a closet. Ann's personality leaps off the page, as does her design philosophy of following the lines of a woman's body. This important, page-turning novel belongs in all historical fiction collections, and will be a good fit for book groups as well.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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