Timeless Style
Nearly a quarter-century ago, tragedy struck as Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, the late wife of John F. Kennedy Jr., met her untimely end in a private plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard in 1999. This heartbreaking incident also claimed the lives of her 38-year-old husband and her 34-year-old sister, Lauren. At the time, Bessette Kennedy, 33, held the role of a fashion executive at Calvin Klein. She first entered the public eye in 1994 when she began dating the former president’s son, marrying him two years later. Despite the couple’s inclination toward privacy, Bessette Kennedy’s distinctive street style always managed to capture attention, resulting in a collection of approximately 100 public photographs.
Bessette Kennedy’s enduring influence persists, highlighted in a recent publication from Abrams titled CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion by Sunita Kumar Nair. Featuring a preface by Edward Enninful, OBE, Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue, foreword by fashion designer Gabriela Hearst, and personal anecdotes from friends and family, the book looks back on some of Bessette Kennedy’s most memorable fashion moments. Hearst described her looks as a very relevant aesthetic today that goes beyond trends. “She understood the value of quality and of moderation. She was not someone to be taken in by excess. The fact that she had just a few pieces shows how modern she was. This to me is the very essence of Carolyn and her timelessness,” explained Hearst. “In the high fashion ranks, Carolyn’s style defined a certain classic minimalism. Though already part of the ’90s fashion landscape, it was Carolyn who singularly translated conceptual runway fashion with her American fashion language of simplicity and accessibility,” said Nair. She continued, “Today, her fashion memory is kept alive by innumerable social media accounts, the silver screen, and fashion designers who still pin her looks on their design mood boards. Her relevancy speaks to a whole spectrum of people, capturing the attention of her peers through to Gen Z.”