Jackie at the Met: From Pretty Woman To Icon

For those of my generation born after Camelot, the mystique of Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis has always been hard to fathom. What was so great about her, we wondered? Why were our mothers so fascinated by her? These were the questions running through my head as I headed for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art one day last June. The Met’s Costume Institute was host to one of the city’s hottest tickets, a fashion exhibit celebrating "Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years," from May 1 to July 29. Evidence of Jackie mania was everywhere once you stepped inside the Met. The line waiting just to get into the galleries was an hour long and, once inside, the procession made up mostly of senior citizens filed by each exhibit at a snail’s crawl. No one wanted to miss a single detail. Mrs. Kennedy’s evening gowns by Oleg Cassini drew gasps; her trademark pillbox hats made by Bergdorf Goodman elicited awed reverence.

Upon entering, the first thing that strikes you is the vibrant, almost shockingly rich colors of Mrs. Kennedy’s clothing – true reds and hot pinks you don’t remember from the black-and-white photos of the era, and something you don’t often see women wearing today. Then there are the ball gowns – the most breathtaking, bejeweled creations by designers like Givenchy, Christian Dior and Cassini – that make today’s Oscar gowns pale in comparison. It takes guts, elegance and a regal carriage to pull such royal-looking clothes off, but after viewing the exhibit you realize that’s what Mrs. Kennedy was: real American royalty.

She personally oversaw the historical restoration of many state rooms at the White House, was an advocate of international diplomacy, and loved to showcase arts like ballet and jazz. Her "acute sense of history" led her to donate the 80 key pieces on display from her wardrobe to the Kennedy Library, according to Vogue editor Hamish Bowles, the exhibit’s creative consultant.

For this show, Bowles and the Met curators analyzed her clothes esthetically and symbolically, placing each outfit against huge black-and-white photo murals showing Mrs. Kennedy in the dresses at the events she wore them at. In particular, I liked how they made the exhibit almost interactive through the use of music, campaign souvenirs, sound bites, and recreations of her living quarters, such as her White House dressing room with its beautifully painted trompe líoeil wardrobe.

Although style was obviously an important part of Jackie’s persona, she didn’t let it rule her life, and said as much to a fashion editor in 1960 when she became First Lady: "I will tell you what you can expect from me in the next four years as far as fashion is concerned: I will not order a great many clothes. I do not agree that a public figure can only be photographed in the same outfit once. The clothes I get will be simple and fairly timeless – as you say, the Balenciaga-Givenchy line, and I will expect them to do hard work for me. I simply do not have the time to be always shopping for clothes – and that kind of extravagance has always been abhorrent to me."

During John F. Kennedy’s inauguration as President, Jackie made a stellar first impression with her youthful clothes. In a sea of women wearing heavy coats in jewel colors, Jackie wore a slim griege coat with muff designed by Oleg Cassini. She stood out "among bears," recalls the American designer, who would act as her sole couturier during her two years at the White House.

Having graduated with a degree in French Literature from the Sorbonne, Mrs. Kennedy spoke French, Spanish, Italian and Polish. Her beauty, breeding and brains would make her an invaluable asset to her husband, even in matters of state. On a visit to Paris in 1961, for instance, Mrs. Kennedy’s impeccable French impressed Charles de Gaulle. Later, at a dinner in Versailles, she wowed the crowd by looking radiant in a Hubert de Givenchy gown and coat. So powerful was her impact that JFK announced post-visit that "I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it!"

Her charm and sparkling sequined dress also melted Nikita Khrushchev at Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, after the Russian premier spent a day in fruitless meetings with President Kennedy. The crowd outside, who were equally taken by her glamour, took up the chant, "Jackie! Jackie!" Feeling that she was upstaging Khrushchev’s wife, Nina, the always gracious First Lady took Mrs. Khrushchev’s hand and pulled her forward until the crowd started chanting, "Nina! Nina!"

The secret to her radiance? "She wears the clothes with joy," observed Givenchy, one of her favorite designers. Because of her French heritage and love for understated style (she and Cassini both agreed that less is more), Jackie loved French couturiers like Givenchy and Chanel, who’d design suits for her patterned after their mentor, Cristobal Balenciaga. These suits would sport Balenciaga’s trademark details like 3/4-length sleeves, standaway collars, fitted cuts, simple A-lines and oversize buttons. Mrs. Kennedy always preferred clothes in solid, bold-statement colors over prints, which she felt didn’t register well on camera.

Before embarking on foreign trips she would study the culture of the place she was visiting, which would influence her fashion picks. In Canada, she wore a Pierre Cardin suit in Mountie red. For a state visit to India, not only did she choose bright pastels cut in the Nehru jacket style, she made sure the fabrics were stiff so they could withstand the heat and the elephant rides she had to take with sister Lee Radziwill. These meticulously planned outfits would go over so well that Jackie’s role expanded as a goodwill ambassador.

Because she was supposed to represent America, it was inevitable that Jackie was criticized for her weakness for French fashion. Always conscious of her social stature, she immediately switched to American designer Oleg Cassini, with whom she’d often collaborate. Together, however, they managed to copy the exact styles of the Givenchy dresses she loved, like the pink strapless column Jackie saw Audrey Hepburn wearing. In retrospect, Mrs. Kennedy knew exactly what she wanted, and even if she had to compromise a little, she would get it.

"It was a question of: I proposed, she disposed," says Cassini of their working relationship.

For her evening gowns, Cassini says she often chose white or ivory because she felt it was the most ceremonial color, and made sure that her clothes were not only stylish but also symbolic. True enough, the gown she had designed for JFK’s inaugural gala was made of ivory satin, with a significant accessory–a cockade, a flower-shaped ribbon that was usually worn by French soldiers in battle.

Cassini liked to show skin in his gowns but Jackie, always the model of propriety and decorum, would usually close his dresses at the neck. For evening she might consent to show more skin, baring her shoulders in a sheer or strapless confection.

As loyal as she was to Cassini, Jackie occasionally wore other designers like Marc Bohan of Christian Dior, Norman Norell and the young Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel. The famous red bouclé day dress she wore to host a televised tour of the White House on Valentine’s Day 1962 was made by Chez Ninon, a chic salon famous for buying, then copying Paris haute couture for fashionable women. The red dress was a copy of a Marc Bohan design.

In bringing French chic and haute couture to the White House, many believe Mrs. Kennedy raised the taste level of American women, even in her simple way of accessorizing. Jackie popularized the three-strand pearl necklace, the scarf casually draped around the neck, the simple brooch or pin from top jewelers like Van Cleef and Arpels, Tiffany and Cartier, and the famous pillbox hat that both Halston and Cassini claim to have designed. Jackie insisted that her pillboxes be worn not squashed down on her head but tilted back. Not only did she avoid hat-head that way, her face was also more visible to the public.

With her unerring fashion instincts and use of style as a way to influence people–as well as project her innate elegance, femininity and confidence–Mrs. Kennedy set the standard for modern-day royals like Princess Diana. Thanks to the Met’s wondrous exhibit I’ve come to understand the myth surrounding her, finally, and now count myself among her legions of fans. There has never been anyone quite like Jackie Kennedy, nor will there be in the near future.

"She was a self-made phenomenon," said Oleg Cassini, one of the people who knew her best. "Before she arrived at the White House, she was just a pretty woman married to a senator. When she left, she was a cultural icon."