Style Profile: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy
It appears the 90s nostalgia wave isn’t going anywhere any time soon, so I thought I would profile one of the best 90s style “icons,” Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. Carolyn Bessette Kennedy is a former Calvin Klein publicist and wife to JFK Jr. Since she avoided all media from interviews to photoshoots, much of her style was captured by paparazzi making it the street style of its day. She was always impeccably dressed in an effortlessly cool style that made her a minimalist style icon. Carolyn wore many sleek items that never go out of style, turned white dressing shirts into evening wear, and even made an often considered unwearable color combination, black and beige, into a perfect match we still see people wearing today.
I don’t think growing up in the 90s I much appreciated her style, but I was a bit young and my biggest concern was trying to copy the Olsen Twins style (Which I won’t lie…sometimes I still do today). What makes Carolyn such a style icon, at least to me, is that she wore neat pieces and had an aversion to most trends. She really only embraced them when it came to sunglasses or boots and just put her own stamp on others. One thing I found really interesting about Carolyn is how she was known to not have a very large closet and didn’t accept “freebies” from designers. She stuck to a tight rotation of basics and a few investment pieces. Ultimately what makes her such a style icon decades after her tragic death is the ability to recreate them today and still look great.
