Spelman College alumna celebrated her 104th birthday on Sept. 20. She was born in 1919. The former HBCU student, Annie Jewell Moore from Atlanta, was honored by Fox 5 News on Thursday for her contribution to fashion.

Moore found her calling as a fashion designer when she was a little girl. She was introduced to different patterns and dress styles after a family friend’s daughter taught her how to sew doll clothes.

“I was taught how to sew by hand and make doll clothes,” she said. “I saw all of these gorgeous doll clothes she had made by hand, and I wanted to learn to sew like that. And that was my earliest inspiration to get into fashion.”

According to Spelman, Moore was the first enrolled African American student to study at the Traphagen School of Fashion, the New York Fashion Academy, and Paris’ École Guerre Lavigna. After graduation in 1943, Moore began a career in New York City, working on Broadway costumes. Her work has been featured in illustrious magazines, Vogue and Jet.

In 1963, she opened her first store called Ann Moore Couturiere in Detroit according to Black Enterprise. At the time, it was the only Black-owned haute couture salon in the area. After following her passion for fashion, she moved back to Atlanta and served as president of the Benefactors of Education. Recently, Moore was celebrated by her clothing collection being displayed in the Atlanta History Center’s Rountree Visual Vault.

“…I think that clothes should be more personalized and don’t become slaves to what’s the trend or the fashion is if it’s not you. Be in control of your own fashion,” she said to WABE in 2019.

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