Fun Black Fashion Fact: Dorothea Towles Church

Did you Know???

Dorothea Towles Church was the first professional African-American model to walk the fashion runways of French couture designers...
...She strutted for Christian Dior, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Pierre Balmain in the '50's, and in 1954 brought her savoir faire to American shores, staging fashion shows and fundraisers for the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
In Barbara Summers' 1998 book Black and Beautiful, Towles said, "I feel that my going all over America with my show had a great influence on American black women dressing differently and feeling good about themselves...I saw them dressing more creatively, more internationally. They could say, ‘If she can do it, I can do it, too.’ ”
Read more about her here.