Jackie Kennedy’s Wedding Dress Designer Ann Lowe to Star in New Film

Largely unknown fashion designer Ann Lowe gets the celluloid treatment, with support from Serena Williams and Ruth E. Carter.

Sony's Tristar Film will release the film "The Dress," which will be based on Piper Huguley's historical fiction book "By Her Own Design." The biopic will focus on Lowe's experience creating the wedding dress that Jacqueline Bouvier wore when she married John F. Kennedy in 1953 - years before his presidential campaign. For a long time, Lowe was not publicly recognized for her elaborate, custom design.

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Lowe died in 1981 at the age of 82. Despite a 50-year career that included designing that historic dress and being a go-to designer for such socialite figures as Marjorie Merriweather Post, the Rockefellers, the Roosevelts and the H.F. du Pont family in the 1950s and 1960s, Lowe's career was largely unsung during her lifetime. Even further back, another of Lowe's wealthy socialite clients was the future first lady's mother, Janet Lee Bouvier, who wore one of Lowe's designs when she married Hugh Auchincloss in 1942.

Williams, who launched Nine Two Six Productions last year, and Carter, a two-time Oscar-winning costume designer, will help produce the feature. Carter, who will also handle costume design, said she was excited to be part of the development of the film "which shines a much-deserved spotlight on Ann Lowe, Madison Avenue's first black couturier and the brilliant mind behind Jackie Bouvier's iconic wedding dress."

"Ann's contributions to fashion have long been overlooked, and we are in a time when stories like hers need to be unlocked and celebrated," Carter said. "As a trailblazer in her own right, I understand firsthand the challenges and triumphs of breaking down barriers. Through her story, we hope to inspire future generations to dream, push boundaries, and know that they too can achieve greatness, just like she did."

Born in Clayton, Alabama, Lowe learned to sew at age 5 from her mother, Janine Cole Lowe, and her formerly enslaved grandmother, Georgia Thompkins, who were established seamstresses of the time. At 16, the designer was forced to take over the family business after her mother unexpectedly passed away. After a few years, she moved to Tampa, Florida. A chance meeting at a department store with Tampa socialite Josephine Edwards Lee, who complimented Lowe on her outfit, led to a job as a seamstress.

Despite her first husband's disapproval, Lowe moved with her son to the family estate. Later, with the support of her employer, Lowe enrolled in the S. T. Taylor Design School in New York City. Lowe was confined to a classroom at the segregated school, but she still outperformed her classmates in half the required time. In the city, Lowe would design for Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and her own eponymous company. In 1928, Lowe moved to New York City and developed a loyal, affluent clientele at a time when black-owned businesses were rare.

Lowe's reputation for intricate designs, lace-lined gowns and fabricated flowers led to her being selected to design Kennedy's dress for her wedding to the future president, as well as the bridesmaids' dresses. After a flood in her shop destroyed the wedding dress and the bridesmaids' dresses 10 days before the wedding, Lowe worked overtime to make new ones, which she did at extra cost and at her own personal expense. It was no small feat. The wedding dress alone was made of 50 yards of ivory silk taffeta and featured a dramatic Christian Dior-inspired "New Look" silhouette. With a fitted bodice and portrait neckline, the dress was adorned with interwoven bands of tucked fabric and a flowing skirt that required the "trapunto" sewing technique for a layered effect of ruffles and concentric circles.

During her career, Lowe faced frequent financial challenges, including being underpaid at times by clients who took advantage of her. Her many creations included an ivory gown adorned with swirls of handmade fabric rose vines and a sleeveless black cocktail dress with handmade pink floral detailing.

On Wednesday, Carter reported that original couture designs by Ann Lowe are on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture and that Kennedy's 1953 wedding dress is part of the permanent collection at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Although it will be Carter and Williams' first collaboration, Carter said, "There's an intellectual place of familiarity that we share in the need to create authentic women's stories that cultivate and move us forward. Serena cares deeply about us and is very vocal in meetings as we build and develop [the film.] She too has broken the status quo in her career and can empathize with this woman's journey."

Carter added: "But the costume design is in my hands."

An executive at Nine Two Six Productions acknowledged a media request but was not immediately available for an interview Wednesday.

WWD first wrote about Lowe in 1960, describing the designer as "a Neiman Marcus 'secret' source for super-elaborate ball gowns" who had received advance approval from Saks Fifth Avenue to design for Neiman's. Lowe was producing her dresses in conjunction with the Miss Madison's store at the time, but she planned to strike out on her own in 1961. Four years later, Lowe and Florence Cowell founded A.F. Chantilly Inc., a wholesale and retail operation, with the boutique selling only what they produced. At the time, ball gowns, wedding dresses, and debutante dresses retailed for $200 and up, gowns started at $350, and suits cost more than $300. She also opened her own store, Ann Lowe Originals, on Madison Avenue in the mid-'60s - a first for a black entrepreneur at the time.

Only in recent years have her career and creations come into sharper focus through museum exhibitions. A year ago, "Ann Lowe: American Couturier," the largest show of her work to date, debuted at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Wilmington, Delaware. In December 2023, a dress Lowe designed will be prominently featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute's exhibition "Women Designing Women" - more than 60 years after the garment was first made.

When she attended the media preview at the Met last year, Lowe's great-granddaughter Linda A. Dixon, who has championed Lowe's legacy for decades, told WWD, "Finally, finally - she's getting the recognition she deserves."

Dixon's literary agent Sharon Parker-Frazier of Crystal Ship Artists said she and Dixon are in contact with the production team about possible involvement in the film.

Katya Roelse has created a replica of Kennedy's wedding dress for the Winterthur exhibit, after spending three days at the JFK Library and Museum taking "hundreds" of photographs of the garment, examining it inside and out and measuring every millimeter of it. She said she has spoken to Carter about the prospect of consulting on the film to ensure the dress "is represented as it really is, to try to tell the story of Ann Lowe, as it relates to the dress, in an accurate way."

The JFK Archives will no longer display the dress because it is in a "damaging" condition - there are tears at the waist and that would not be ethical or respectful," said Roelse, a professor of fashion design at the University of Delaware.

Lowe's work was also featured in the Costume Institute's 2022 exhibition "In America: An Anthology of Fashion." Decades earlier, in 1989, Lowe's designs were showcased at "The Soul of Seventh Avenue," an event honoring black designers held at the New York Hilton.

More recently, fashion designer B Michael noted in a 2020 interview with WWD that while some namesake labels like Oscar de la Renta and Christian Dior have endured years after their founders' deaths, the Lowe name has not. "Ann Lowe should be a brand that's viable now, but it's not," he said at the time.

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