Nancy Wilson “Style Maven”
Nancy Wilson, renowned as much for her stylish image as for her song stylings, has long been a supporter of education and the arts. These interests converge with her donation of two designer gowns to the Smithsonian, which operates the world’s most comprehensive set of jazz programs and its National Museum of American History—home to jazz collections that include 100,000 pages of Duke Ellington’s unpublished music and objects such as Ella Fitzgerald’s famous red dress, Dizzy Gillespie’s angled trumpet, John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” manuscript and Benny Goodman’s clarinet.
“I designed this dress for Nancy with an expression of elegance and timelessness,” explains Angela Dean, the creator of the silver-grey silk velvet wrap-dress with poet sleeves that Wilson wore to the 49th Annual Grammy Awards February 11, 2007. That day Associated Press photographs captured her arrival on the red carpet and her acceptance of the award for best jazz vocal album for “Turned To Blue.” This was Wilson’s third Grammy Award. The dress was donated to the historical Smithsonian Museum by Nancy Wilson
“This is one of the greatest highlights in my career to have a like Diva Nancy Wilson to donate one of my dresses to one of the most prestigious museums in history of America”