Africa Fashion at the Brooklyn Museum, was a treat. The exhibit is small, but features many Designers out of Africa. They did pack it in and I hope this subject is visited by many. The exhibit is there June 23 - October 22, 2023
Read More: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/africa_fashion
The Brooklyn Museum presentation of Africa Fashion is organized by Ernestine White-Mifetu, Sills Foundation Curator of African Art, and Annissa Malvoisin, Bard Graduate Center / Brooklyn Museum Postdoctoral Fellow in the Arts of Africa, with Catherine Futter, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Senior Curator of Decorative Arts, and Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture, and Rhea Stark, Curatorial Assistant, Arts of Africa, Asia, and the Islamic World, Brooklyn Museum.
We know about about Ann Lowe/Jacqueline Bouvier and the famous Wedding dress. You only have to Google those 2 names to find out....but what about the Designer Anne Cole Lowe, born 1898 (same year my Grandfather was born). She died 1981. During her active years as a designer, she did created gowns for the rich and still stood in the shadows...and still managed to leave an extraordinary legacy. Below some links to give you some context Ann Cole Lowe Biography Written By Elaine Nichols with research assistance by Alexis Dixon
https://nmaahc.si.edu/biography/ann-lowe
Mike Douglas Interview: • Ann Lowe on MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW
Her Story: Ann Lowe (this is just cute):http://shemadehistory.com/her-story-ann-lowe/
She Made History:http://shemadehistory.com/
More Fashion History: Black Fashion History Podcast: https://www.blackfashionhistory.com/
If you don't know Madame Grés here something to start you off.
I remember when I was a student in FIT, hearing about Madame Grés. Then I saw them in person at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.The drape, the pleating, the creativity, it left me awestruck. Then you hear her story. She was a couturier designer with her own house, and then when the German's occupied Paris, that's when her needle to show them (the Nazi's) what she was made of.
Read and see more here: Madame Grés:
The Art of Draping: https://shorturl.at/pAEL6
Wikipedia: Madame Grés
The dress with the Star of David: https://shorturl.at/cFLM5
The dress is now in St. Augustine, Florida, teaching lessons of support.
I posted our first night video here
Stills of our first night at Peña-Peck house, where the dress is on display.
This was the moment I heard my voice on the video. I had send them videos of myself creating the dress. I knew they were going to display those video, but it just hit me and I was filled with gratitude.
The room was beautifully prepped for "The Dress"
I received the book Black Designers in American Fashion edited by Elizabeth Way, https://amzn.to/3viLKrh I love finding out how the powerful the needle has been through out history for African Americans. Harriet Jacobs was new to me. She was an escaped slave, seamstress, author, and abolitionist. Her book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861, gives her account of being enslaved and the escape through freedom. Here is a portion of the ad for capture : Being a good seamstress, she has been accustomed to dress well, has a variety of very fine clothes, made in the prevailing fashion, and will probably appear, if abroad, tricked out in gay and fashionable finery. As this girl absconded...
