century, European men worked hard at keeping women “in their place.” The fashion industry was a hierarchy that prized the work of tailors—a position reserved for men—over mere seamstresses, the women who cut, draped and folded fabric before stitching simple garments together.
As you may have guessed, tailors earned more—ostensibly because they handled more intricate designs and luxurious fabrics. Lest you think of those as minor distinctions, consider this: Before any new item of clothing could be made, professional guilds decided which gender had the liberty to make it. “Made It” displays garments from that period, including the mantua, a dress that women were allowed to make.
Anne Lowe left her Alabama home in 1917 to study fashion design in New York, but a segregated school kept the Black designer from studying alongside her peers. Nevertheless, Lowe graduated early and went on to design for families on the Social Register. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy’s wedding dress was designed by Lowe. Ten days before the wedding, catastrophe struck: The bridal gown plus 10 others were destroyed when a pipe burst in her studio.
French-born Pauline Trigère set tongues wagging in 1961 by employing a Black model, Beverly Valdes—a first for a major designer. The outspoken single mom started her business in New York in 1942, having left her Paris home five years earlier. She had two small children, and her husband didn’t want her to work.
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