The Life and Work of Ann Lowe: Rediscovering "Society's Best Kept Secret"

Ann Lowe (c. 1898-1981) was a successful New York fashion designer, who by the 1960s owned a couture salon on Madison Avenue. Yet despite her achievements, Lowe's dress designs have had little scholarly examination and her role in the history of modern fashion has been marginalized. The popular theory to explain this, that Lowe was overlooked solely because she was an African American, does not tell the full story. Through a critical biographical framework, this thesis will examine Lowe's life and career--which spans much of the twentieth century--as it was affected by race and class relations in the United States and the precarious role of women in the business world. Grounded in an analysis of Lowe's dresses, created between 1917 and 1964, it will argue that Lowe possessed the technical and social skills required of a leading designer, and her failure to be recognized as such is the result of a complex set of intertwining, social, historical, and economic factors.

Author

• Powell, Margaret E.

Language

• en

Keyword

• Gasparilla
• Ann Lowe
• Fashion Design
• African American History
• Fashion History

Date created

• 2012

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Decorative Arts

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Doering, Mary
• Nelson, Andrea

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/hq37vn705