Unpacking My Obsession with Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy

On emulating this timeless beauty in all aspects of life.

One Brief Shining Moment

I cannot pinpoint the moment in my life when my obsession with the Kennedy family began. Growing up in New England, it is likely that my admiration for this beautiful and elusive family was inevitable. I am not the first to be mesmerized by their class, style, power, and their gradual fall from the throne of American politics.

My affinity for New England culture aside, my own family has a rather surprising connection to the infamous clan. As a young teenager, my Great Aunt Bunny grew up in Georgetown, somewhere around the 1950s. As luck would have it, her neighbors were Bobby and Ethel Kennedy. Who else lived on her street? No other than a young senator and his wife: JFK and Jackie.

She’s told me stories of their dinner parties together, trips with Bobby and Ethel, how JFK would walk the streets at night, stopping to chat on her front stoop. Jackie Kennedy even attended her high school graduation (imagine!). I now have the graduation gift Jackie got for her, a small red leather and gold pocket mirror. It feels charged with Jackie’s energy— it is a talisman, and I’m hoping her energy lies somewhere within in it. After all, energy is neither created nor destroyed. (Maybe she’ll pass on her incredible influence in the fashion world. And a few of her iconic Chanel suits, too.)

THE MIRROR!!

Serving Jackie style…

As a result of my aunt’s remarkable connection to the family, they have inhabited my imagination for years. I’ve collected a sizeable assortment of Kennedy memorabilia, from old newspapers to books chronicling their lives.

Additionally, I will admit that part of my fascination with them is the parallel between the death of JFK and my own father. My Dad was not an American president, nor was he a politician, yet he embodied that same golden quality of a man people admire. JFK left behind two kids, and a great wife: Caroline and John, and Jackie; so did my Dad. In that infamous image of Jackie with her two kids at the funeral, I do not see a first lady and her two mourning children; I see my own mother, my brother, and I.

I feel a strange kinship to them. I know what it’s like to lose a great man and to walk in the footprints of his legacy. I know what it feels like to experience a great loss like that overnight, to be a young child mourning their father. Let us not forget that we are all connected by that human emotion called grief.

In an infamous interview after JFK’s death, Jackie told Life reporter Theodore H. White reporter a metaphor that would become synonymous with the Kennedy legacy. (I actually have an original issue of the 1963 article, which I’ve inserted a photo of, below.)

She tells the story of how “Jack” used to listen to his favorite classical record at night: “Camelot.”

The lines he loved to hear were: Don’t let it be forget, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.

And thus the iconic Camelot myth was born. By equating her late husband with the lore of Kings, she fought hard for his legacy as a historically important and great man.

This fairytale element is part of the Kennedy allure. They are sprawling Cape Cod mansions, balls in the White House, sailboats on the bay, and crystal champagne glasses sparkling in the summer sunlight. Yet they are also blood spatters on pink Chanel suits, plane crashes in the water, bullet holes in the brain. It is their beauty, and conversely, their tragedy, that allures us so.

“But she does not want them to forget John F. Kennedy or read of him only in dusty or bitter histories: For one brief shining moment there was Camelot.”¹

Film still from one of my all-time favorite movies, Jackie (2016).

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Carolyn’s Camelot

Of all the Kennedys, however, the one I am most in awe of is not even a Kennedy by blood. Nor was she a part of Camelot, JFK’s fleeting, influential presidency. Rather, she is utterly unique and iconic even without their last name: Carolyn Bessette, later known as Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. The wife of the late John F. Kennedy Jr., who was once named People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive,” CBK was iconic and remarkable in her own right.

To those unfamiliar with their story, on July 16, 1999, JFK jr. and Carolyn, along with her sister, died in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Three years prior to their tragic end, however, the pair wed in September 1996 at a private ceremony off the coast of Georgia. (We’ll unpack her wedding dress later, don’t worry.)

Yet the most iconic part of Carolyn’s life came before her marriage to the Sexiest Man Alive. Working as a publicist for Calvin Klein in her early 20s, she was an essential player in the 90s New York fashion scene.

A New York Time’s article from 1996, “Enter Smiling, the Stylist Carolyn Bessette,” paints an alluring picture of the “beautiful and brainy new queen of Camelot”:

Ms. Bessette-Kennedy was herself the best advertisement for Mr. Klein's clothes, and her all-American beauty the perfect public face for a design house, where image is crucial. Former associates say she was one of the designer's muses, close to both Mr. Klein and Kelly Klein, now separated from her husband.

''She was 'The Look,' '' said a former Calvin Klein employee, who remembers how Zach Carr, a designer for Mr. Klein, would often say, ''I wonder how Carolyn would put this together.' ''

Former associates still talk about Ms. Bessette-Kennedy's sense of style. One remembers the day she turned up at the office wearing a tight black leather Calvin Klein jacket as a blouse, set off by the thick blond mane she often wore fashionably unkempt in the ''bedroom hair'' style much in vogue on the runways.²

Clearly, her influence in the fashion universe was undeniable, with or without the Kennedy name. If you need further proof, the book Champagne Supernovas also corroborates Carolyn’s pre-Kennedy cool-girl aura:

“In mid-1992, this moment of grunge and grit and ‘70s regression, Bessette was nothing like the minimalist glamazon she became after marrying John F. Kennedy Jr.: These days, she wore Egyptian musk and no makeup and had competitions with female Calvin staffers to see who could go the longest without washing her hair. Bessette coolly knocked back her own patrician beauty, spurning perfectionism for a warmer, no less artful dishevelment; at heart, she was a downtown girl who loved vodka, Parliaments, and parting at Save the Robots till six in the morning.” (pg. xvii)

CB with a young Kate Moss😭

(Side note: I feel like a great perfume scent could be “Carolyn Bessette 90s musk.” Someone in the fragrance industry, get on it!)

Carolyn possessed that elusive quality that so many people chase yet not many truly possess: The It Girl factor. What makes someone the It Girl changes by the decade. Today’s It Girl would be someone who chases Instagram likes, (briefly) trendy clothing items, and fame. Yet I’d argue that Carolyn was not just simply a 90s It-Girl; she is the timeless It. Her beauty, grace, and unique grasp on classic American style transcend decades beyond her untimely death.

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A Breakdown of CBK’S Style

Now, the important part: How, exactly, did Carolyn dress? What are the hallmark traits of her style? Let’s get into it! 💋

1. Black. Lots of black, contrasted with simple whites: T-shirts, linen shirts, silk shirts. And of course, blue jeans! (Yes, she probably only wore Calvin’s.)

   

2. Long pea coats, preferably in black, but she also wasn’t afraid to pull out a cheetah print. Fortune favors the bold.

   

3. Classic silhouettes. This outfit feels like a 90s twist on Dior’s “New Look.”

   

   Also, notice the nude heels.

4. Hair in a bun with these black sunglasses— a staple. Also, a *silk* little black dress.

   

   How can anyone look this good making a phone call on a dirty telephone?

5. She was also never afraid of a casual look. Tennis shoes, white jeans, black fleece: Mrs. high fashion had her off-days, and she still looked effortlessly trendy.

   

6. All-American girl, ready for a day on the water. Simple jeans + oversized sweatshirt + white tennis shoes= simple, yet successful.

   

7. Don’t forget the color! Despite black and white being her go-to shades, I admire her ability to step out with a more fun print. Never be afraid to step out of the fashion comfort zone you’ve made for yourself.

   

   8. THE WEDDING DRESS!!!!!! I DON’T EVEN NEED TO SAY ANYTHING. JUST LOOK.

      

✨In Conclusion… ✨

I’m reaching the length limit for this email, so I’ll wrap this up. The Kennedy story would be utterly incomplete without the women who stood by their side. To every Kennedy man, there was a powerful, beautiful, iconic woman. And I would argue that CBK is up there with Jackie as one of the most powerful, beautiful, and iconic women to ever grace our presence.

I think that an important element of beauty that we often forget is the concept of fleetingness, ephemerality. Something is beautiful only if it is fleeting. The most basic metaphor for this idea I’ll give you is that the roses in the park near my house are only in bloom for the month of June. The July sun will soon scorch them, their petals daintily falling to the devouring earth. Their fleetingness means we must savor them while we can. Look, don’t touch. Carolyn Bessette carried that same quality of a delicate strong rose; her short-lived beauty will never leave our collective memory.

1. https://www.life.com/history/jackie-movie-life-magazine/

2. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/29/nyregion/enter-smiling-the-stylish-carolyn-bessette.html