Homecoming season across the Atlanta University Center continues as Spelman and Morehouse College enjoy their annual tradition.
You can always count on a lively atmosphere as current students and alumni gather on campus to celebrate. One person who knows the feeling better than anyone is Annie Jewel Moore, the oldest living Spelman alumna.
This September, Moore celebrated her 106th birthday. She graduated from Spelman in 1943 with a degree in economics.
“The economics of war, the war was going on during my time,” she said.
After her graduation, Moore was one of the first Black women to study fashion design at Paris’ Ecole Guerre Lavigne and the New York Fashion Academy. She eventually launched her own boutique, Ann Moore Couturiere, in Detroit in 1951.
“I had individual customers and I would do a collection every year. It was across the street from Motown.”
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She broke barriers with her work in Vogue in 1953, two years after starting her company.
“If they would have known I was African American, they wouldn’t have accepted it, but I didn’t try to disguise it,” Moore recalled.
She said she put her dress on a white model to increase her chances of getting into the storied magazine.
“She was Caucasian and Vogue hadn’t run any Blacks before then,” she said.
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During her time in the industry, Moore crafted timeless pieces, from office wear to dinner party wear. A dress she made in 1967 is on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center.
Spelman’s homecoming wasn’t elaborate back then as it is today, she said.
“I went, and it was a big event for the Spelman students, but it wasn’t a big event for me because I didn’t have a boyfriend,” she said.
Her secret to living a long life? A social life full of laughter with her friends.
