By Her Own Design

In September 1963 in New York City, Ann is working on the most high-profile commission of her life: Jacqueline Bouvier’s dress for her marriage to Senator John Kennedy. A young boy wakes Ann up and tells her to come down to her design shop quickly. Ann and her sister, Sallie, reach the design shop and find Jacqueline’s wedding dress—and most of the bridesmaid dresses—ruined by a burst pipe. The dresses are all soiled with water and filth. Jacqueline’s wedding is just under a week away.

Ann and Sallie are distraught. The landlord doesn’t know how the pipe burst. Ann wonders if someone was targeting her and her success as a Black designer. Ann remembers making Jacqueline’s debutante dress and getting ivory fabric for her first fallen engagement. Luckily, she saved the ivory fabric from that engagement, which she finds in a box in the back.

Ann and Sallie devise a plan to ask their fellow churchgoers for help with recreating the dresses. They will work from the church basement until the shop is dried out.

With a time stamp for Alabama, 1907-1912, the text goes back to when Ann was a child. She grew up in Clayton, Alabama, with her mother, Janie, who Ann calls “Mama,” and her grandmother Georgia, who she calls “Grandma.” Grandma married “the General,” a white man who gave her freedom with their marriage. Grandma still had to work as a seamstress for the plantation family, though, and she passed her skills onto Mama, Ann, and Ann’s older half-sister, Sallie. Grandma gives advice about how “Negro” women need to find good white people to be their patrons, like they have with the high-society ladies for whom they design.

Ann makes cloth flowers from scraps of fabrics, which people love to buy. Mama puts her flower money in a tin container nailed to the floor for safekeeping. The family sews fancy ball gowns for the elite families in Alabama. Little Ann says that she will attend a ball one day, too, but the others laugh because balls are only for white people.

When Ann is 10 and Sallie is 16, Sallie gets pregnant. She moves out and lives with her fiancé close by. Mama is disappointed and angry with Sallie. Ann hopes to never disappoint her family like Sallie has.

At about age 12, Ann keeps making her cloth flowers. Mama tells her that she needs to learn something useful and should be focusing on her quilts instead. Grandma tells Mama to let Ann be young since she’ll get her “blood” soon enough.

As soon as Ann goes through puberty and gets her first period, she becomes interested in a man named Lee Cone. He stops by one day asking for Jack Lowe, Ann’s father, whom Ann has never met. Mama interrogates Lee about why he’s there; he says that he was on a chain gang with Jack after being accused of a crime by a white man. Ann is attracted to Lee, but Mama sends her to Sallie’s house to stop her from getting to know him.

At this point, Sallie has three babies. Since they don’t have the same father, Ann tells her about Lee and asks about Jack. Sallie agrees that Lee’s story is true. Mama didn’t want Sallie to tell Ann, but Sallie explains that Ann’s father was sent to prison and died right after she was born. The loss broke Mama’s heart.

Sallie compliments Ann’s designs. She’s been getting noticed for her dresses and flowers. Sallie wants Ann to keep saving money and have a better life so that she can leave Alabama someday.

Ann goes to the general store for supplies, including groceries. Due to racist rules, she has to wait until all the white customers are served. Lee arrives and chats with her. As they get to know each other, he walks her home and compliments her. He calls her pretty and appreciates her dress design, calling her an artist who knows her trade. Ann feels wonderful to be called an artist. Lee is a tailor, so he knows clothes well, too.

During another trip, Lee pays for her to have the best meat and other items that usually only white folks get. He carries her groceries home but never up to her house since Mama doesn’t approve of him. He asks to be called Lee, and Ann enjoys this intimacy.

At home, Mama wonders how Ann got a full chicken. Ann never tells her that Lee paid for it, but she will be his wife within two months.

Lee continues to meet Ann during all her shopping trips and walks her home. They grow closer, sharing stories and their love for sewing and fashion design.

After taking a trip to town, Mama finds out that Lee has been walking Ann home. She cries because she warned her about Lee. Ann promises that they only talked. Mama says that Ann has a special gift for sewing and that Lee will only ruin her.

The next day, Mama treats Ann as though she is more mature. She gives her coffee and invites her to do alterations for the state senator’s wife, Miss Katie. At Miss Katie’s lavish home, Ann learns how to behave with white clients, such as keeping her eyes downcast. However, she can’t help but speak up about a design to help flatter Katie’s body better. Katie is taken aback at first, but Mama agrees that the style will suit her for her mother-of-the-bride gown.

At home, Ann fears that Mama will be upset, but she doesn’t talk about her rudeness with Miss Katie. Ann overhears her telling Grandma that she has too much spirit but is also special with her insight on design: Ann makes her flowers and dresses without any patterns. Grandma insists that Mama tell Ann about Jack, but it pains her too much.

A few weeks later, Ann runs into Lee again. She hugs him. He was away working, but he returned to give her a half-birthday present: a golden locket with her name on it. Ann is touched, and Lee then proposes with a ring. Ann wants to go home and pack, but he insists that Mama will try to change Ann’s mind. He pushes her into getting married that day, and she agrees.

They have a whirlwind ceremony and have sex in a hotel. Ann is in disbelief that a grown man loves a little girl like her, but she’s Mrs. Lee Cone now. When Ann returns home, she finds her stuff on the front porch. Mama leaves her a note that states that she heard Ann ran off with Lee. Mama disowns her.

Now married, Ann remembers Grandma telling her about her courtship with the General and how he fought for her freedom and got her out of slavery. Grandma explains that women will always have a “master”—whether enslaver or husband—but now they can choose their “master.”

Ann thinks about Sallie; her husband, Jerry; and their three babies. Sallie told her that there was nothing in the world like your husband loving you. Ann didn’t understand, but she wonders if she’ll have babies with Lee.

Lee isn’t tender with her any longer. When she asks questions, like why they can’t go back to Mama’s house, he tells Ann that he is her boss and that she needs to stop bugging him. They move into a small home and start tailoring for male clients. Ann feels bored making the uninspired suits and misses her pre-marriage life.

Ann longs for when she could make her own decisions, rather than be forced to cook, clean, and act as Lee’s sex toy. One day, while working on a client’s suit, Mama yells for Ann. Lee won’t let her leave the house. Mama keeps yelling, so Lee goes out to talk with her while Ann keeps working. When finished, Ann searches outside for Mama. Lee has her pinned against the house. Mama cries while Lee rapes her. Ann is shocked.

Afterward, Ann confronts Lee about raping her mother. Lee admits that he wanted Mama, not her, since Mama was the experienced seamstress. Ann presses the issue, but Lee reacts with verbal and physical abuse. He pushes Ann against the stove and rapes her.

Ann’s days become the same pattern of waking up, making breakfast, working, making dinner, and sleeping. Lee usually forces himself on her at night. She regrets wanting to grow up too quickly and marrying Lee. She longs for Mama, Grandma, and making pretty dresses—her passion.

Grandma comes to visit, forcing her way inside. She argues with Lee about needing words alone with Ann. He finally obliges. Grandma gives Ann a special tea to drink so that she doesn’t get pregnant too young. Grandma also tells her that she needs to make her flowers again to save her own money—then she can escape. She can tell that Lee isn’t kind to Ann, but she didn’t know any better as a child. Mama also misses her. Ann feels better with Grandma’s love and advice.

Mama and Grandma move closer to Ann and Lee. The women attend church together, where they say that they’ll need Ann’s help with inauguration balls for the first lady of Alabama. Mama and Grandma fight for Ann to help them. They convince Lee that he needs to let Ann sew for them since the opportunity to work for high-society white people like this is important. Lee wants Ann to try to get the governor’s business, too.

Ann leaves with her family to live with them during the commission. Mama tells her about Jack, her father, who was handsome and had a great singing voice. He got shot, maybe because of being with another man’s wife. Ann appreciates learning more about him. Mama says that if Lee ever makes her unhappy, she needs to come home. They cry and hug, their relationship repaired.