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Annie Turnbo Malone

Annie Turnbo Malone was born to former slaves in Metropolis, Illinois. By the age of 20 she had developed her own shampoos and scalp treatments to grow and straighten hair. By 1902 her products were a success. She named her company Poro Products and moved to St. Louis, Missouri to expand the business. Poro Products became an international company with customers in the United States, Africa, South America and the Caribbean. In 1918 Malone built a four-story million dollar factory and beauty school complex in the historic St. Louis neighborhood known as 'The Ville'. She employed over 175 people (including at one point protégé Sarah Breedlove, who would later become known as Madam C.J. Walker.) She became one of the nation’s wealthiest black women, a leading cosmetics entrepreneur, philanthropist and leader in the St. Louis black community. In 1930, the business was relocated to Chicago, Illinois. Annie Malone died at the age of 88 in 1957.

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Naomi Sims

Naomi Sims on the cover of Ladies' Home Journal

Credited as the first African-American supermodel, Naomi Sims made fashion history when she became the first black woman to land the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal in 1968. She later launched The Naomi Sims Collection, which started as a hugely popular line of affordable wigs for black women, and grew to include fragrance, cosmetics and multiple books on beauty and modeling. Naomi passed away in August of 2009 from breast cancer at the age of 61. 

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Zelda Wynn Valdes

Zelda Wynn Valdes is a renowned fashion/costume designer revered for her design talent and best known for her skill in highlighting the female body. Her curve-hugging creations were worn and loved by a host of Hollywood's biggest starlets during the 1940s and 50s, including Joyce Bryant, Dorothy Dandridge, Josephine Baker, Ella Fitzgerald and Mae West. Her work caught the attention of Playboy's Hugh Hefner and he commissioned Zelda to design the first-ever Playboy bunny costumes. In 1948, Zelda opened her own boutique, "Chez Zelda", on Broadway in New York City, making her the first African-American to own a store on the popular street. She was also the New York chaper president of the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designer (NAFAD), a coalition of black designers that was founded by Mary McLeod Bethune. Zelda Wynn Valdes died at the age of 96 in 2001.

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Ann Lowe

Ann Lowe was a talented fashion designer that didn't receive the credit that she truly deserved. In 1953, Lowe designed the famous Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' wedding dress for her marriage to John F. Kennedy. The voluminous, off-the-shoulder dress was constructed out of 50 yards of ivory silk taffeta. Sadly, Jackie is said to have told people that her gown was made by a "colored woman dressmaker" and Lowe was only mentioned by name in the Washington Post where fashion editor Nine Hyde simple wrote "...the dress was designed by a Negro, Ann Lowe." The former First Lady wasn't Lowe's first or only high profile client. Lowe also designed for New York society families like the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts. The talented fashion designer also created the gown that actress Olivia de Havilland wore when she accepted the Oscar for Best Actress in 1946. Ann Lowe died at the age of 83 in 1981.