There were two Cinderella moments in the life of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: the first occurred in Boston, in 1989, when she worked as a sales assistant at Calvin Klein. The future Mrs. Kennedy called the attention of a firm executive, Susan Sokol, who was looking for someone to deal with VIP clients at the New York headquarters. “Carolyn was pretty, but she didn't believe it, which was strange and charming. It was obvious that she had a great sense of style and that she stood out from the rest of her… We offered her the job.”
This is how Sokol tells it in a recently published book: CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy - A Life in Fashion (Abrams publishing house), a tribute to a woman who always knew what to wear. In it, a friend comments that Carolyn would be surprised if an entire book was dedicated to her style. But, since she was a teenager, clothes were important for that young woman with dazzling blonde hair, raised in wealthy Greenwich, by a mother who, they say, dressed wonderfully. Therefore, when she graduated in Teaching from Boston University and was not prepared to face “twenty-five creatures that are not mine,” she chose to dedicate herself to fashion.
When he moved to New York, the nineties were beginning and many were seeking to escape the aesthetic excesses of the previous decade. Calvin Klein was on the rise and the young Bessette fit perfectly with the concept of a more sober look, with a cool touch. Her job involved dealing with designers, models and actresses. So when she met John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., in the second Cinderella moment of her life, she was already familiar with fame.
In any case, it is likely that he was dazzled by the son of the legendary US president. John-John was not only the American prince, but one of the most handsome men on the planet. The details of the meeting vary (they were introduced by a mutual friend, he was a Calvin Klein client...), but the result was a two-year courtship and an armored wedding, in 1996, in which the bride impressed with a Narciso Rodríguez dress . The suit, in silk crepe, was as simple as it was exclusive. An absolute statement of style-Bessette, described as “superbly minimalist” and “forerunner of quiet luxury.”
“Carolyn simply had that something,” writes Edward Enninful, editor of English Vogue, in the prologue. Along with other fashion greats, such as Yohji Yamamoto and Manolo Blahnik, he analyzes Bessette's looks, which articulate the book. The shirts (which she could wear with jeans or to a gala dinner). Beige, a color she adored. The coats: Prada, mostly. The casual style with which she and John-John always came out on top. And the minimal dresses, which she wore with the confidence that comes with having a great physique, although several testimonies highlight that Carolyn often felt the need to “moderate” her beauty. She didn't like to attract attention.
However, until her death in 1999, at the age of thirty-three, she was one of the most photographed women in the world. The images of her that remain come, for the most part, from the paparazzi who made her life miserable. Although she knew well the power of fashion, she refused to collaborate with big magazines and never had a stylist. Even on her wedding day, she did her own makeup. Jacqueline Kennedy's daughter-in-law was the one who decided her looks. And this authenticity of hers has made her an icon. As Manolo Blahnik says: “If you look at a photograph of him, it seems that no time has passed. The only way I have to describe her is this: she is eternal.”
