Post by Zee France

These Designers created legacies that wiil always be remembered. Celebrate these luminaries who sketched, stitched an sewed to success. Elizabeth Keckley was born into slavery in Virginia 1818, and learned to sew from her mom. Her owners struggled to make ends meet and relocated to St. Louis in 1840s, hiring her out as a seamstress. Her owner collected most of her wages, She created excellent work, and ultimately she bought freedom for her & son. Ann Lowe born in Alabama in 1898 into family of sewers, learned to sew from mom. When her mom passed 1914, Lowe was tasked with completing her mom's work, ball gowns for the First Lady of Alabama. Her designs were a hit. Stephen Burrows was born in 1943 in NJ, he loved fashion from a young age.He would sew with his granny. He graduated from (FIT) in New York City in 1966. Patrick Kelly, born 1954, start in the fashion at 18, he won a scholarship to Parsons but the offer was rescinded. the scholarship was pulled because Kelly was Black, he moved to Paris an model Pat Cleveland bought him a 1way ticket, it turned in his favor. Tracy Reese first learned to sew from her mom. She moved to NYC at 18, finished Parsons in 1984. Reese got jobs with fashion firm Arlequin, worked her way up in 1980s Perry Ellis. Started Tracy Reese in 1997.