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The National Design Model and Dressmakers' Association, Harlem, founded 1920.

Leadership

• Mrs. May Belle Becks Coffer, President (in 1920)

Madam May Belle Becks ca.1871-1930? early Harlem fashion educator and entrepreneur who some described as “the foremost ed designer in this country." In 1908 the Paris-trained modiste established the Mme. Becks Dressmaking School at 324 West 52nd Street a finishing school said to be unique in the city for comprehensive courses in the crafts of design embroidery and tailoring. Soon afterward Mme. Becks mobilized dozens of professional tradeswomen of – fed up with being denied membership in the Dressmakers Protective Association of America a white institution – to form their own United Dressmakers Protective Association. Their new association held annual conventions to demonstrate and analyze the latest advancements in women’s fashions from abroad. Mme. Becks herself reportedly advanced the dressmaking industry by introducing an improved leatherette cutting and fitting chart based on a French system that "does entirely away with patterns." By 1924 she was a familiar well heeled Harlem businesswoman whose townhouse was just down the street from the new Renaissance or “The Rennie” as the building at West 138th Street and Seventh Avenue was famously known. In addition to comprising the Renaissance Ballroom and Casino and the Renaissance Theatre the cultural complex also housed the ed American Retail Company a department store. Unsurprisingly the pioneering Mme. Becks managed the store’s dress department with her force of seventeen designing women.

Family

She divorced John Harry Becks (in Reno?)

Notes and references