Fancy Party Gowns

The Story of Fashion Designer Ann Cole Lowe

Deborah Blumenthal, Laura Freeman, illustrator, Little Bee Books Hardcover $17.99 (40pp), 978-1-4998-0239-9

Movie stars and debutants sang her praises as they clamored to wear the unique, high-fashion gowns she created, but before she was known as the “Official Couturiere,” Ann Cole Lowe was just a little girl, sitting at her mother’s feet and making flowers out of scraps of cloth. Deborah Blumenthal, with eye-catching illustrations by Laura Freeman, recounts the life of the indomitable designer in Fancy Party Gowns, the true story of one woman’s talent and dreams.