Black Fashion Museum facts for kids
The Black Fashion Museum was a special place that showed off clothes and designs by Black artists and makers throughout history. It started in Harlem, New York in 1979 and later moved to Washington, D.C. in 1994. The museum closed in 2007, but its amazing collection of over 700 clothes, 300 accessories, and many historical papers was given to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
What Was the Museum About?
The Black Fashion Museum celebrated the important role of Black dressmakers in American life. It was a place where clothes designed and made by people of African heritage were kept and shown.
The museum's collection included special items like copies of fancy ballgowns made by Elizabeth Keckley. She was a talented dressmaker who had been enslaved but later became a close friend of Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln. Elizabeth Keckley also wrote a book about her life and helped formerly enslaved people after the Civil War.
Another famous designer featured was Ann Lowe. She designed the beautiful wedding dress for Jacqueline Bouvier when she married John F. Kennedy, who later became president.
Amazing Clothes and Stories
The Black Fashion Museum collection had many different kinds of clothing. It included items from the 1800s all the way to the 1980s. You could see everyday clothes, fancy high-fashion outfits, and even costumes from plays and performances.
Some of the unique items in the collection were:
- Clothing and bonnets worn by enslaved people in the mid-1800s.
- An amazing opera cape made by someone who had been enslaved.
- Beautiful gowns by Ann Lowe, whose clients included famous families like the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts.
- A dress sewn by Rosa Parks shortly before her famous stand for civil rights in Montgomery, Alabama.
- A patterned skirt worn by an enslaved child in Virginia.
- The original Tin Man costume designed by Geoffrey Holder for the 1975 Broadway musical, The Wiz.
Michèle Gates Moresi, a curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, said that all the items in the collection showed "excellence in workmanship and design."
Where is the Collection Now?
In 2007, Lois K. Alexander-Lane's daughter, Joyce Bailey, donated the entire Black Fashion Museum collection to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Lois K. Alexander-Lane was the person who started the museum and collected all these items throughout her life.
This collection is one of the largest and most special of its kind. It helps us learn about the history of Black fashion and the talented people who created it.
- You can learn more about The Black Fashion Museum Collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
