Calendar

In the Legacy of Ann Lowe: Contemporary American Fashion

October 20-21, 2023

Ann Lowe (ca. 1898–1981) designed couture-quality gowns for six decades for America’s most elite women, including Jacqueline Kennedy, Olivia de Havilland, and Marjorie Merriweather Post. Lowe’s influence on American fashion has only recently begun to receive the attention it deserves. This two-day symposium will be held in conjunction with the largest exhibition of Lowe’s work to date, Ann Lowe: American Couturier. The exhibition will feature nearly 40 iconic Lowe gowns drawn from institutions and private collections across the country, as well as the work of contemporary couturiers and fashion designers whose current design practices, perspectives, and career paths reflect the trajectory of American fashion emanating from Lowe’s foundation.

Join guest curator Elizabeth Way, associate curator at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Winterthur staff, visiting scholars, contemporary designers, and students for a series of talks and demonstrations that will explore Lowe’s legacy and how it continues to impact fashion culture today.

This symposium is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Coby Foundation, Ltd.

$85 conference only; $130 for conference and evening event. Space is limited. Registration required by October 15. Scholarships available.

Register for the in-person conference now.

Schedule of Events
Friday, October 20, 2023

8:30 am
Registration and coffee, Visitor Center Café

9:00 am
Welcome, Copeland Lecture Hall
Chris Strand, Charles F. Montgomery Director & CEO
Alexandra Deutsch, John L. and Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections

9:15 am
Gleaning from the Mastery of Ann Lowe
Carla Nelson, creator, president & CEO of the Black Fashion World Foundation

10:00 am
Ann Lowe: A Life in Gowns
Elizabeth Way, associate curator at The Museum at FIT and curator of Ann Lowe: American Couturier

10:45 am
Break

11:15 am
The Remaking of Ann Lowe’s Most Famous Dress
Katya Roelse, instructor in the Fashion and Apparel Program at the University of Delaware and director of Design and Creative Making Certificate Program

12:00 pm
Lunch, available for purchase in the Visitor Center Café

1:15 pm
Playing a Supporting Role: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Costume Display and Textile Conservation at Winterthur
Katherine Sahmel, conservator of textiles and affiliated assistant professor of the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation
Heather Hansen, textile conservation assistant
Heather Hodge, textile conservator at The Preservation Society of Newport County in Rhode Island

2:30–5:00 pm
Tours and Workshops, Museum and Research Building
Registration required. Space is limited.

4:30–5:15 pm
Elizabeth Way book signing of Ann Lowe: American Couturier, Museum Store

5:00–6:30 pm
Reception, Museum Store Café

Includes small bites, open beer and wine bar, and conversation with conference speakers. Advanced registration and additional fee required. Limited capacity.

Saturday, October 21, 2023

8:30 am
Coffee and conversation with book signing by Elizabeth Way, Visitor Center Café

9:15 am
Welcome back, Copeland Lecture Hall
Alexandra Deutsch

9:30 am
Envisioning Boldness: Ann Lowe, America’s Couture Designer
Elaine Nichols, supervisory curator of culture at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)

10:15 am
Navigating a Career in Fashion, a conversation with Asata Maisé Beeks and Shawn Baron Pinckney
Alexandra Deutsch, Asata Maisé Beeks, multidisciplinary artist, and Shawn Baron Pinckney, designer

11:00 am
Tours and Workshops, Museum and Research Building
Registration required. Space is limited.

12:30 pm
Lunch, available for purchase in the Visitor Center Café

1:30 pm
Slavery’s Warp, Liberty’s Weft: Ann Lowe and the Legacy of Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Enslaved Fashion Makers
Dr. Jonathan Michael Square, assistant professor at Parsons School of Design

2:30 pm
Refashioning My Life as an Artist
Precious D. Lovell, mixed-media artist

3:30 pm
B Michael: American Couturier
Elizabeth Way, associate curator, Museum at FIT and curator of Ann Lowe: American Couturier
B Michael, co-founder, fashion designer, and creative director of B Michael Global

4:30 pm
Closing remarks

Registration fee covers lectures, tours, workshops, coffee breaks, Winterthur general admission, and admission to the exhibition.
Registrants are invited to join our evening reception with beer, wine, and light fair for an additional fee.

Register for the in-person conference now.

Recorded Lectures and Tour
Recorded lectures and a tour of the exhibition will be available after the symposium for those who cannot attend in person. Access to recorded conference content is $50 ($40 for Winterthur members.)
Register for the the recorded lectures and tour now.

Talk/Program Descriptions

Gleaning from the Mastery of Ann Lowe
Carla Nelson, creator, president, and CEO of Black Fashion World Foundation
Carla Nelson will explore how the strategies used by Ann Lowe to succeed against the odds remain relevant today. She is the creator, president, and CEO of Black Fashion World Foundation, an organization that provides black fashion professionals access to higher education, capital, mentorship, the advice of business experts, advertising opportunities, and distributors.

Ann Lowe: A Life in Gowns
Elizabeth Way, associate curator at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology
Ann Lowe’s fashion career spanned six decades from the 1910s to 1972. Her designs evolved with the times, from sparkling 1920s flapper gowns to exquisite 1960s debutante gowns, yet she developed a signature style that emphasized high quality construction and femininity, often incorporating her signature floral embellishments. Her most famous gowns were seen by millions and made a significant impact on fashion culture. Lowe’s career, explored through gowns on view in the Ann Lowe: American Couturier exhibition, reveals how fashion developed aesthetically and as an industry over the twentieth century. Her extraordinary life as a Black woman is an important story of American history.

The Remaking of Ann Lowe’s Most Famous Dress
Katya Roelse, instructor in the fashion and apparel program at the University of Delaware
Katya Roelse will share the reproduction process and the unexpected revelations made by discovering and learning the techniques of Ann Lowe by discussing one of her most significant creations, the wedding gown she made for Jacqueline Bouvier when she married John F. Kennedy. The original gown is in the archives in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, and is unable to be displayed. I was given the honor of recreating the gown so that Lowe’s tour de force design could be seen and her techniques could be documented. I spent six months measuring, analyzing, sourcing materials for, and sewing the gown. This process not only created a dress, but it also allowed my student assistants and me to walk in the footsteps of a highly skilled and talented designer.

Playing a Supporting Role: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Costume Display and Textile Conservation at Winterthur
Kate Sahmel, Heather Hansen, and Heather Hodge
Winterthur’s textile conservation staff will share a behind-the scenes look at the process to prepare the exhibition Ann Lowe: American Couturier. This multifaceted project required more than two years of planning to design the mannequins, do the conservation treatments, take photographs, and finally install. Images and stories from the process will give the audience a chance to see all that goes into preparing for a costume and dress exhibition at Winterthur.

Caring for Clothing Collections
Kate Sahmel and Heather Hansen
Find out how the conservation staff at Winterthur cares for and displays textiles in the museum collection, with a focus on clothing and garments. Tour the Textile and Preventive labs and learn about ways you can protect and preserve textiles at home.

Meet-and-Greet with University of Delaware Design Students
Students from the Fashion and Apparel Studies Department at the University of Delaware share their experiences working on the Ann Lowe Jacqueline Kennedy gown. On display will be their own designs inspired by the work of Ann Lowe, as well as studies of the haute couture sewing techniques Lowe used in her garments.

The Flowers of Fashion: Vintage Techniques of Flower Making
Katya Roelse, instructor in the fashion and apparel program at the University of Delaware
Like French haute couture houses, Ann Lowe was inspired by flowers, and they appear in many of her designs as embroidery, surface design, and appliqué. Artisans like the House of Legeron have created fanciful and intricate silk flowers for haute couture brands such as Dior, Chanel, and Givenchy since the late 1800s. The techniques are not widely known or practiced because of the time and cost involved. Here I will demonstrate a few techniques by les fabricants de fleur artificielles (fabric flower makers).

Envisioning Boldness: Ann Lowe, America’s Couture Designer
Elaine Nichols, supervisory curator of culture at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
Ann Lowe knew who she was as a person and as an exceptional designer. She was one of America’s most outstanding designers. Her clients included the Rockefellers, the du Ponts, and the Colgates. She is best remembered for making the wedding gown and bridal attire for Jacqueline Bouvier when she married the then Senator John F. Kennedy in 1953. This presentation offers a glimpse into her long and illustrious career and passion for creating exceptional fashion designs, from the early twentieth century until she retired 1972.

Navigating a Career in Fashion: a Conversation with Asata Maisé Beeks and Shawn Barron Pinckney
Alexandra Deutsch with Asata Maisé Beeks and Shawn Barron Pinckney
Winterthur’s director of collections, Alexandra Deutsch, speaks with Wilmington-based designers Asata Maisé Beeks and Shawn Baron Pinckney about their work, careers, and their designs inspired by Ann Lowe that will be featured in this year’s Yuletide installation at Winterthur.

Slavery’s Warp, Liberty’s Weft: Ann Lowe and the Legacy of Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Enslaved Fashion Makers
Dr. Jonathan Michael Square, assistant professor at Parsons School of Design
Ann Lowe was a Harlem-based African American designer who created fashion for a largely white elite clientele, including most notably for the wedding of Jacqueline Lee Bouvier to John F. Kennedy. Lowe’s maternal grandmother was an enslaved seamstress named Georgia, whose freedom was bought by Lowe’s grandfather “General” Cole, a free black carpenter. The two married soon thereafter. Their daughter Janey followed the métier of her mother, and later gave birth to her own daughter Ann. Ann Cole Lowe was thus a third-generation needleworker who could trace her sewing skills all the way to her formerly enslaved grandmother. In my presentation, I will place Lowe within a genealogy of enslaved makers and argue that Lowe is an important bridge in our understanding of the transference of expert needlework from the era of enslavement to our modern day.

Refashioning My Life as an Artist
Precious D. Lovell, mixed-media artist
Fashion design and art are intimately linked in my creative practice. Having worked as a fashion designer in New York City’s garment district for twenty years, I know the power that clothing has to send a message. As an artist, I investigate the potential of cloth and clothing to tell stories about African descended people, especially the Black American experience. In my practice, Black women and the work of their hands serve as muses and methods for me.

B Michael: American Couturier
B Michael, co-founder, fashion designer, and creative director of B Michael Global
Elizabeth Way, associate curator at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology
Exhibition curator Elizabeth Way is joined by B Michael, couturier to some of America’s most elegant women, including Cicely Tyson, Phylicia Rashad, Valerie Simpson, and Beyoncé. He is co-founder with partner Mark-Anthony Edwards of B Michael America and designs both ready-to-wear and couture collections. The two will discuss American couture, B Michael’s career, and the fashion business today.

Speaker Biographies

Asata Maisé Beeks
Born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Asata Maisé Beeks is a multidisciplinary artist preserving the ancestral practice and cultural significance of textile production, weaving, and garment construction through her work. Her reverence for haute couture (the highest level of sewing) is intersected by her West African lineage, American pop cultural influences, and the sustainable practices of her upbringing. Asata meditates on the many connections and themes that show up through her practice of refining raw and recycled materials, often perceived as lacking value, into manifestations of harmonious beauty.

Alexandra Deutsch
Alexandra Deutsch leads Winterthur’s collections and interpretation division. Before arriving at Winterthur in 2019 as director of museum engagement, she was vice-president of collections and interpretation and chief curator at the Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore. Her tenure there was distinguished by nationally recognized exhibitions that included Woman of Two Worlds: Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte and Her Quest for an Imperial Legacy and Spectrum of Fashion. From 2010 until 2019, she worked at the Maryland Center to establish the Barbara P. Katz Fashion Archives, a collection of over 14,000 garments dating from the eighteenth century to the present day.
     Throughout her career, Alexandra has written and lectured about diverse topics in American material culture and placed a particular emphasis on women’s and fashion history. Her publications, Woman of Two Worlds: Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte (2016), Spectrum of Fashion (2019) and her other scholarly works examine the role that fashion has played in shaping concepts of identity and celebrity. An avid vintage clothes wearer, she has worked for over a decade to create a wardrobe that is ninety-nine percent second-hand, thrifted, and vintage.

Heather Hansen
Heather Hansen is a textile conservation assistant at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. She received her bachelor of arts in art conservation and art history from the University of Delaware and a master of arts from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. Heather worked as collections manager at the Chester County History Center in West Chester, Pennsylvania, before returning to Winterthur. She supports the textile conservation department by creating custom housings and exhibition mounts for textiles, practicing preventive collections care, and giving presentations about natural fibers, dyes, and historic textile construction techniques.

Heather Hodge
Heather Hodge (she/her/hers) graduated from Juniata College with a bachelor of arts in art history. She received her master of arts and Certificate of Advanced Study in art conservation from the SUNY Buffalo State Garman Art Conservation Department in 2021. Heather completed graduate internships at The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Zephyr Preservation Studio, LLC, Trupin Conservation Services, LLC, and The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. She was a post graduate fellow in textile conservation at Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, and is currently a textile conservator at the Preservation Society of Newport County in Rhode Island.

Precious D. Lovell
Precious Lovell is a mixed media artist based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her sociocultural creative practice explores the narrative potential of cloth and clothing. The cultural significance, narrative, aesthetic, and technical qualities of traditional textiles and clothing, particularly those of the African Diaspora, heavily influence her work. She was the 2022 Brightwork Fellow at Anchorlight in Raleigh, North Carolina. She holds a master of art and design in fibers and surface design and a bachelor of fine arts BFA in fashion design. A former fashion designer and associate professor, Precious has presented lectures at universities, museums, and national and international conferences about clothing and cloth of the African Diaspora. She has been granted international artist residencies and has traveled to forty-five countries researching and collecting textiles and clothing. Precious’s work has been exhibited in the United States and internationally.

B Michael
B Michael is the co-founder, fashion designer, and creative director of B Michael Global. Presently, he is the chief designer for the brand’s couture and designer ready-to-wear collections. He received acclaim designing the costumes for Whitney Houston’s last film, Sparkle, ballet costumes for the Joffrey Ballet’s premiere of Windy Sand, and received numerous commissions to design for film and television. B Michael started his career as a millinery (Hat) designer for the hit TV show Dynasty and later worked as a millinery designer for Louis Feraud in Paris and for Oscar de la Renta.
     B Michael is a member of the Council of the Fashion Designers of America and serves on the board of the Youth America Grand Prix. In 2016 he was awarded the prestigious Design Visionary Award by the Lighthouse Guild. In 2019 B Michael became the first Black American fashion designer in the luxury space to dress an OSCAR recipient, longtime friend and muse Cicely Tyson, for the iconic red-carpet moment “Making History.” In 2021 B Michael was honored by the National Congress of Black Women during their 37th anniversary awards gala titled “Through It All, Still Standing.”
     B Michael’s collections have garnered appreciative fans including socialites and personalities such as longtime friend and MUSE Cicely Tyson . . . Phylicia Rashad, Halle Berry, Cate Blanchett, Valerie Simpson, Brandy, Beyoncé, Nancy Wilson, Susan Fales-Hill, poet laureate Elizabeth Alexander, and Lena Horne, among many others. He has shown his couture collection in Beijing, Shanghai, and Korea. B Michael’s designer ready-to-wear collection will be available on the brand’s e-commerce website launching 2024. You can follow his work via social media: Instagram: B Michael @bmichaelamerica, Twitter: B Michael @bmichaelamerica; TikTok: B Michael @bmichaelfashiondesigner
     B Michael lives in Harlem, New York City, with his husband Mark-Anthony Edwards, CEO and chairman of B Michael Global.

Carla Nelson
Carla Nelson is the creator, president, and CEO of Black Fashion World Foundation, an organization that provides black fashion professionals access to higher education, capital, mentorship, the advice of business experts, advertising opportunities, and distributors.
     Carla’s dream of being in fashion was denied. Through the eyes of a friend/aspiring fashion stylist, she became aware of the many challenges faced by other African Americans seeking fashion industry careers. Her organizational skills and love of fashion collided causing her to create this organization with the focus of providing empowerment via education, networking, and opportunity events to Blacks and People of Color in a platform that has not been provided before.
     Carla holds a bachelor of science in accounting and a master of business administration with a business concentration. She has operated in various leadership roles in both corporate and nonprofit sectors. Throughout her professional career, her organizational skills formed the core of her success. Starting her career as an administrative assistant, her experience spans from event planning and production, international import/export, to financial services.
     A catalyst for process improvement, Carla has established and implemented various operational procedures; she implemented a New Hire Orientation program and secured an Employee Gym Discount program. Carla has been presented with a Spirit of Excellence Award from Christian Cultural Center and three (3) Bronze Awards by Zurich Insurance.

Elaine Nichols
Elaine Nichols is the supervisory curator of culture at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Nichols developed her love for African American history at a young age by listening to the stories about her heritage, culture, and resilience from the elders in her family. Her love of history would later guide her academic pursuits, leading her to complete a master of art in public service archaeology from the University of South Carolina and a master of art in social administration and planning from Case Western Reserve University.
     Nichols made her curatorial debut at the South Carolina State Museum, where she curated the exhibition, The Last Miles of the Way: African American Funeral and Mourning Customs in South Carolina, 1890–Present. The exhibition received international attention. She later mounted several exhibitions about dress and fashions, the inaugural attire of South Carolina governors and First Ladies and purses.
     In 2009, after working as a contractor for the NMAAHC “Save Our National Treasures” project, Nichols was recruited into her current role at the Museum. She is the curator of record for several areas: dress, fashion, textiles, dolls, toys, and games.

Shawn Baron Pinckney
At the foundation of artist Shawn Baron Pinckney’s practice is a reverence for both the transformative and symbolic power of clothing. Garments constructed by Pinckney are a metaphor for the ability to transcend culturally defined boundaries as fashion is employed as a formidable form of projection. In his current work, Pinckney uses the familiarity of clothing as a means of lowering defenses in the viewer, creating space for the facilitation of difficult conversations about gender, race, and class. His work juxtaposes symbolically loaded fabrics with traditionally gendered cuts, emphasizing how clothing can alter our perspective and challenge culturally imposed definitions of identity.
     Currently residing in Delaware, Pinckney has participated in several exhibitions at The Delaware Contemporary. He had his first fashion show in 1992, where he received a review by critic Roy Campbell and was awarded the title of Best New Designer for the Eastern Regional Division by the National Association of Fashion and Accessories Designers (NAFAD). Since then, his work has been published domestically and internationally, including in Tableaux Vivants by Tony Ward, Vigore Magazine, Mami Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The News Journal (Delaware). Pinckney has been a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania for The Art of Couture series.

Katya Roelse
Katya Roelse is an instructor in the Fashion and Apparel Program at the University of Delaware. She has worked in the fashion and apparel industry as a creative and technical designer for womenswear, menswear, childrenswear, uniforms, and wearable medical devices. She teaches computer-aided design, illustration, sewing, and patternmaking. Her scholarship integrates design, pedagogy, and technology, and she recently co-authored The Book of Pockets: A Practical Guide for Fashion Designers. She has a bachelor of art from the University of the Arts and a master of science from Drexel University. She is currently pursuing her doctoral studies in Educational Leadership at UD.

Katherine Sahmel
Katherine Sahmel is conservator of textiles at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and affiliated assistant professor of the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC). Previously, she worked with many local Delaware and Philadelphia institutions on textile care and treatment through her private conservation practice. She also spent time as a conservation fellow in the Costume and Textiles Department at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She holds a master of science in Art Conservation from the WUDPAC program and continues to be inspired by the stories and significance held within textile material culture.

Dr. Jonathan Michael Square
Dr. Jonathan Michael Square is the assistant professor at Parsons School of Design. He holds a Ph.D. from New York University, a master of arts from the University of Texas at Austin, and bachelor of arts from Cornell University. He was previously a lecturer in the Committee on Degree in History and Literature at Harvard University and a fellow in the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He curated Complicated Stories: Black Artists Respond to the Complicated Histories of Slavery at the Herron School of Art and Design that closed in January 2023. He will curate an upcoming show at Winterthur opening in May 2025 based on the African-American Picture Gallery. Square runs the digital humanities project Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom.

Elizabeth Way
Elizabeth Way is associate curator of costume at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her past exhibitions include Black Fashion Designers (2016), Fabric In Fashion (2018), Head to Toe (2021), Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop Style (2023), and Food & Fashion (2023). Way’s personal research focuses on the intersection of Black American culture and fashion. She edited Black Designers in American Fashion (2021) and has contributed to numerous publications. Way holds a master of arts in costume studies from New York University and a bachelor of science in apparel design and a bachelor of arts in history from the University of Delaware.

Register for the in-person conference now.

Register for the the recorded lectures and tour now.

Accommodations

Hotels near Winterthur:
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Wilmington
The Inn at Montchanin
Hotel du Pont
The Fairville Inn

Transportation

Winterthur is approximately 45 minutes from Philadelphia International Airport and 15 minutes from the Amtrak Station in Wilmington.

Cabs, Ubers, and Lyfts are not readily available near the property and must be pre-arranged. We recommend Delaware Express.

 

This exhibition is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Coby Foundation, Ltd., and the National Endowment for the Humanities.