Elizabeth Keckley (frontispiece to "Behind the Scenes")

Reproduction of evening bodice and skirt made by Elizabeth Keckley

Mary Lincoln's Dress

Cabinet card of Mary Jane Hale Welles in a funeral dress by Elizabeth Keckly

Dress sewn by Rosa Parks

Brown and black striped silk moiré bodice and skirt

Dress made by an unidentified enslaved woman

Printed floral skirt worn by Lucy Lee Shirley as a child

Teal blue dress and cropped jacket designed by Ann Lowe

Dress designed by Ann Lowe

Singer sewing machine and table from Mae's Millinery Shop

Six colors of thread from Mae's Millinery Shop

Hat box filled with tools and materials from Mae's Millinery Shop

Black beaded dress designed by Zelda Wynn and worn by Ella Fitzgerald

Cream sleeveless dress and jacket designed by Zelda Wynn

Blue and green dress with jacket by Zelda Wynn

Skirt worn by an enslaved ancestor of Janett Sharee Galloway

Costume dress for Lady in Red from for colored girls... on Broadway

Costume dress for Lady in Purple from for colored girls... on Broadway

Costume dress for Lady in Orange from for colored girls... on Broadway

Clothing label for Mae Reeves from Mae's Millinery Shop

Twenty receipts and a business card from Mae's Millinery Shop

North Sixtieth Street Association membership certificate issued to Mae Reeves

Carte-de-visite of Hubert Gideon Welles in outfit sewn by Elizabeth Keckly

African-American women have long been an integral part of the fashion system. Passed down through generations, the art of sewing was a skill many enslaved African-American women knew and used to create clothing for themselves, their families and their enslavers. This was often used as a “selling point” when promoting enslaved women for sale. Many enslavers appreciated enslaved women for their skill in tailoring clothing for their spouses and children, but they were not credited for their work. The handcrafted garments that survive in museums today are archived not by the names of their makers, but simply as garments made by enslaved people. As a class they were recognized for their skills, but only to advance a system that kept them trapped. Over time, African-American women circumvented this system and used their abilities to sew as a way to free themselves from slavery and make a living. In 1855, Elizabeth Keckley, a formerly enslaved woman, successfully purchased the freedom of herself and her son for $1,200 (approximately $40,000 in today’s money) with the help of her dressmaking clients. A hundred years later, Rosa Parks worked as a professional seamstress in an Alabama department store. She had been sewing a dress for herself, which she was carrying, unfinished, in her bag on the day she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus in 1955. The yellow and grey dress featured in this collection is the very same dress, which has been repaired and conserved by the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute. African-Americans also used their sewing abilities to create enterprises that shifted them from being unnamed makers to named fashion designers. Elizabeth Keckley was able to move north where she opened a dress shop, established herself as a designer for the elite, and tailored dresses for many wives of politicians. It is rumored that Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, ordered about 15 dresses from her each season. She even wrote an autobiography, titled Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House, that features a likeness of her in the frontispiece. The volume is collected by the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. And Keckley was not an anomaly; African American women opened dress shops and millineries that allowed them to frame the narrative around their work. In the 1940s, the rise in national African-American media outlets, like Ebony and Jet, contributed to the rise in nationally recognized African-American women designers. These magazines profiled African-American life and celebrities, which included the women who made their clothes. Couturier Anne Lowe and fashion designer Zelda Wynn Valdes were highlighted when celebrities like actress Dorothy Dandridge and singer and songwriter Eartha Kitt were showcased wearing their designs. African-American women not only helped define fashion in this country, they used their skills to define themselves and ensure that they were acknowledged and seen.

African-American Women Designers

African-American Women Designers

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