The first renown black fashion designer, Ann Lowe, is getting the biopic treatment with Serena Williams and Ruth Carter at the helm of production.
Despite designing couture-quality gowns for America’s most prominent debutantes, Ann Lowe has received little recognition for her influence on American fashion.
To correct that, Sony’s TriStar Pictures will release a biopic, titled The Dress, highlighting Lowe’s contribution to generations of American fashion culture. The film will be based on Piper Huguley’s historical fiction book “By Her Own Design.”
As per the Hollywood Reporter, “the story will focus on how Lowe, who was the first Black woman to own a shop on Madison Avenue, was commissioned to design the wedding dress that Jackie Bouvier wore at her 1953 wedding to John F. Kennedy.”
Lowe died in 1981 at the age of 82. Despite having had a 50-year career that included designing that historic dress and being a go-to designer for society types like 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.
The TriStar’s acquisition of the project is owed largely to Serena Williams and costume designer, Ruth Carter. Williams, who launched Nine Two Six Productions in 2023, will produce the film through her company alongside Caroline Currier. Carter will also produce and handle the costume design.
“Ann’s contributions to fashion have long been overlooked, and we are in a moment where stories like hers must be unlocked and celebrated,” Carter said. “As a trailblazer in my own right, I understand firsthand the challenges and triumphs of breaking barriers. Through her story, we hope to inspire future generations to dream, push boundaries, and know that they too can achieve greatness, just as she did.”
It was only in the past few years that Lowe received recognition for her work. A year ago, “Ann Lowe: American Couturier,” which was the largest show of her work thus far, debuted at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Wilmington, Del. In December of 2023, a Lowe-designed gown was featured prominently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute “Women Designing Women” exhibition — 60-plus years after the garment was first made.
Per the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture biography entry on Lowe, “About 10 days before the [Kennedy] wedding, a ruptured pipe in Lowe’s building destroyed the wedding gown and 10 of the 15 bridesmaid’s dresses. Lowe and her team of seamstresses recreated the dresses, but ultimately, she sustained a $2,200 loss in income. She never reported the loss to the Kennedy family. Lowe was chosen by the bride’s mother, Janet Auchincloss, with whom she had a long-standing relationship. When Janet Auchincloss married Hugh Auchincloss in 1942, Lowe created her wedding gown. She also designed the debut gown of Nina Auchincloss, Jacqueline’s stepsister, which appeared in Vogue in 1955. Lowe worked for the Auchincloss family until 1957.”
No casting has been announced yet, nor a premiere date for The Dress.