Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s pared-back approach to style has become the stuff of legend. Her wardrobe, mythologised; her image, endlessly referenced but never quite replicated. Decades on, she remains a benchmark for a kind of American minimalism that feels both effortless and exacting.
Her accessories, much like her clothing, were tight in number but deliberate in choice – subtle details that gained meaning through repetition. She understood the power of a signature: the same slim sunglasses shielding her gaze, the same structured bag tucked beneath her arm, the same unfussy heels grounding a silk slip of some kind.
With the much-anticipated release of Love Story, the newly-launched mini series exploring her relationship with John F. Kennedy Jr., the style icon is once again at the forefront of our minds. Although, did she ever really leave?
To understand Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s style fully, it’s worth taking a closer look at the accessories she returned to time and again, which became the understated essentials that completed her very well put together uniform.
The sunglasses
Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images
Lawrence Schwartzwald/Getty Images
One of her most enduring signatures, Bessette-Kennedy’s sunglasses became inseparable from her image. Frequently photographed navigating New York streets beside John F. Kennedy Jr., she often shielded herself behind slim, oval lenses. With the abundance of small oval styles on the market today, her choices still feel remarkably current. While she favoured an oval-shaped black pair from Selima Optique, she also regularly wore tortoiseshell versions and delicate thin metal frames.
