Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe

A careful snip, a delicate fold. Fabric the color of new petals. Skirts that flare like upside-down blossoms. A garden bursts into bloom!

There is no 'good enough.' For Ann, only the best will do.

Award-winning author Kate Messner and costume historian Margaret E. Powell tell the powerful story of the groundbreaking Ann Lowe, who grew up in a small Alabama dress shop and became the first nationally known African American
fashion designer. Sought after by millionaires and movie stars, her designs walked the red carpet and graced the wedding of Senator John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier.

At a time when the world around her thought African Americans deserved no more than second-class treatment, Ann expected no less of herself, and no less for herself, than the best.