While in February we celebrate Black History Month to remember important people and events in the history of the African diaspora, this month we commemorate the end of slavery in the United States on Juneteenth or June 19th. First celebrated in 1866 in Texas, it’s considered the “longest-running African-American holiday” and was announced a federal holiday in 2021. “Juneteenth is the midway point between what was once known as the underground railroad to physical freedom to now the above-ground railroad to liberating intellectual learning and clarity”, Dione Sims, granddaughter of Juneteenth activist Opal Lee, says. In recent months, questions have surfaced after the Trump administration removed Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day from the list of fee-free days at national parks, but since the president cannot remove a federal holiday through executive action alone, the holiday regains its federal status. That makes at least one thing the Trump administration hasn’t revised yet. In their campaign to rewrite how America retells its history, they have ordered federal agencies to remove exhibits and materials emphasizing slavery and racial justice, with the threat of cut funding if changes weren’t made. These blatant attempts at erasing Black history are all the more reason to keep highlighting the histories of African American individuals before they fall into oblivion and falsification.
Just like in many other areas, the fashion industry lacks proper acknowledgement of the work and contributions of Black people. When we talk about fashion, we tend to focus on the people whose faces and names we can see upfront, like models, designers, and creative directors. I can only hope that by now everybody knows the names of Virgil Abloh, Telfar Clemens, or Dapper Dan but behind all these people there’s usually a huge team of creatives that make their visions come to life. Which is exactly why I want to take you down history lane and introduce you to three remarkable Black seamstresses who changed American fashion history:
Seamstress, Activist & Writer – Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley
In case you’ve already heard of Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, you probably know her as former First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln’s personal dressmaker, but there is so much more to her story than that. Elizabeth was born in 1818 to her mother Agnes, who was an enslaved domestic servant to Virginian planter Armistead Burwell and his family. Agnes passed on her literacy and sewing skills to her daughter, which were essential to the path her life would later take. When she was fourteen years old, Elizabeth was sent to work for Burwell’s son, where she suffered a lot of hardship and abuse. She then moved to St. Louis with Burwell’s daughter Ann Garland in 1847, who hired her out as a seamstress while the family was struggling financially. Slowly, Elizabeth built a clientele and business among the socially prominent women of the city. One of those loyal patrons helped her raise $1200 to buy her son George’s and her own freedom, which eventually led to Elizabeth becoming a free woman in 1855.
Five years later, Elizabeth moved to Washington, D.C., where she started building a dressmaking business for wealthy and influential women. Shortly after, one of her clients recommended her to the president’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, which marked the beginning of a close friendship between the two women. Elizabeth’s business flourished, and she was able to employ twenty women. At the same time, she started a relief association to assist the many formerly enslaved people in the city. In April 1862, Congress passed legislation freeing all enslaved people in the District of Columbia, which had led a lot of African Americans to flock to the city in search of work and shelter, only to be met by poverty and segregation. In 1968, Elizabeth published her autobiography Behind the Scenes of Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House, which is one of the main reasons that we know so much about her life today. Unsurprisingly, though, society wasn’t ready for the words of a free Black woman. Mrs. Lincoln felt so personally betrayed by Elizabeth’s account of her time in the White House that she ended their friendship. After this public backlash, Elizabeth continued working as a dressmaker and trained young Black women as seamstresses. She became head of the Department of Sewing and Domestic Science Arts at the university in Ohio and spent her final years with the National Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children, which she had helped to build, until she passed away in 1907.
High Society’s “Best Kept Secret” – Ann Lowe
In fact, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley wasn’t the only Black seamstress to dress a First Lady. Following in her footsteps was Ann Lowe, born in 1989 in Alabama to a lineage of skilled dressmakers. At the age of five, she learned to sew and developed a fondness for making decorative flower patterns out of fabric scraps – something that would later become one of her signature features. When Ann’s mother suddenly died in 1914 and left behind four unfinished dresses for a New Year’s Eve ball, Ann successfully completed them, which helped establish her as a dressmaker. It was a chance encounter in a department store with Tampa socialite Josephine Edwards Lee two years later that changed the course of Ann’s life. Together with her son Arthur, she moved to Florida to work as a live-in dressmaker for Josephine and her daughters. Ann was always eager to expand her skills, and when she learned about the S.T. Taylor School of Design in New York City, she promptly applied and got accepted. During her time in New York, Ann was segregated into another classroom even though her design abilities were superior to those of her white classmates, and she completed the program in half the assigned time.
After returning from New York, a growing demand for ball gowns, cotillion wear, and formal attire led Ann to train eighteen seamstresses and open her first store, Annie Cone Boutique. In 1928, Ann closed her boutique and permanently moved to New York, where she operated several stores and became the first African American to own a couture salon on Madison Avenue. Throughout the Great Depression, Ann had to work for other fashion houses like Hattie Carnegie or Sonia Gowns, where she met many affluent clients. One of them was actress Olivia de Havilland, who wore a hand-painted Ann Lowe dress when she received the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946. Ann’s fairytale-like gowns appeared in magazines like Vogue or Vanity Fair and earned commissions from high-end luxury department stores. In 1953, she designed Jacqueline Bouvier’s bridal gown and party dress for her marriage to John F. Kennedy, not letting anyone know that just ten days before the wedding, a ruptured pipe had destroyed the original gown and bridesmaid dresses. When Ann’s son was killed in a car accident in 1958, it led to a decline in her health as well as financial stability and career, as he had been the one tending to everything business-related. Even though Ann was a celebrated and well-loved designer all her life, she had been substantially underpaid in comparison to her white counterparts, leading to her being deeply indebted before her death in 1981.
Dressing Stars & Bunnies – Zelda Wynn Valdes
While Ann Lowe was known for her floral and whimsical designs, Zelda Wynn Valdes’ designs were more figure-hugging and flirtatious. Born in 1905 in Pennsylvania, Zelda observed her mother and grandmother’s work as seamstresses and was later sent to work at her uncle’s tailoring shop. Around 1920, she started working as a stock girl at a high-end boutique where she eventually became their first Black sales clerk and tailor. Zelda’s evolving technical skills led to her becoming more and more visible and a growing clientele seeking out her designs. In 1948, she opened one of the first Black-owned boutiques in Manhattan together with her sister Mary Barbour. Zelda’s dresses attracted socialites and celebrities like Josephine Baker, Eartha Kitt, and Edna Mae Robinson, and she was also tasked with creating a sexier image for Joyce Bryant. In 1949, Zelda became president of the New York chapter of the National Association of Fashion and Accessories Designers, which was a trade association that supported Black fashion professionals navigating the exclusive and white-dominated industry.
In 1958, Zelda got hired by Hugh Hefner to design the first Playboy Bunny costumes. Her original designs had taller ears and lacked the trademark bowtie, collar, and cuffs that they sport now. The Bunny costume made its formal debut at the opening of the first Playboy club in Chicago in 1960, where Zelda later produced several fashion shows. From the 1970’s she worked as lead costume designer for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, led by Arthur Mitchell. Until her death in 2001, Zelda found joy working in theatre.
