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Over Valentine’s last weekend, as editors darted between shows and rose petals covered broken pavements, Love Story premiered. New York Fashion Week has always fed on icons. This time, it paused to revisit one. Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy resurfaces. When the stars align, beautiful things happen, or at least very photogenic ones.
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The FX (Hulu at Disney+) has released the fifth installment in American Story superproducer Ryan Murphy’s expanding franchise (after Horror, Crime, Horror Stories, and Sports). The subject: the whirlwind courtship and marriage of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (portrayed by Sarah Pidgeon) and John F. Kennedy, Jr. (portrayed by newcomer Paul Anthony Kelly)—New York’s own royal couple of the ’90s.
Their story, breathless and tabloid-fed, ended in 1999 when JFK Jr. piloted a plane that crashed into the Atlantic near Martha’s Vineyard, killing him, Carolyn, and her sister Lauren Bessette. Tragedy calcified the myth. The phrase “Kennedy curse” crept back into headlines, as it so often does.
But even before the crash, they were already legend: tall hair and taller expectations; political pedigree colliding with downtown cool. If JFK Jr.—six-foot-plus, glossy as a campaign poster—looked slightly daunted beside her, then yes, she was intimidating, in the best way.
The CBK Uniform
Before she was a Kennedy, Carolyn Bessette was a fashion insider. She worked in public relations at Calvin Klein, eventually rising to director of publicity. Klein himself orbited It girls like Kate Moss and Gwyneth Paltrow. CBK helped engineer it: the celebrities, that aesthetic code. She understood that minimalism is not the absence of style, but the editing of it.
With that education, her wardrobe opens like a thesis: Levi’s 517 bootcut jeans. A crisp white button-down. Slim black boots. A pencil skirt with a slight sway. Large enough dark sunglasses. A light sweater tossed over the shoulders, as if stapled.
Then, her accessories: a Cartier Tank Louis watch, headbands by Charles J. Wahba. A cigarette, just in case. Nothing loud or pleading for attention; her hair—honeyed, center-parted, softly blunt—did enough as a star in its own right.
Some will call it basic. Others will slot it into the now-exhausted “quiet luxury” folder. But the coolness does not stem solely from the garments. It radiates from the wearer. After all, JFK Jr. chose her. In a city that treats dating like a competitive sport, that choice landed like a trophy.
A Tastemaker, Not a Follower
When she married JFK Jr. in 1996, Carolyn didn’t reach for dynasty drama. She chose a slip of a gown by Narciso Rodriguez—bias-cut, silk crepe, clean. At the time, the designer was hardly a household name. After that wedding, he was. That choice alone told you everything about her instincts. The dress recalibrated bridal taste. Suddenly, silk slips became an aspiration. That single alternative turned minimalism into a wedding must-have—and brides have been speaking it ever since.
Her loyalties ran toward the cerebral corners of fashion. Yohji Yamamoto for his austere poetry. Prada, ever-coded as intellectual rather than influencer fodder. Ann Demeulemeester for a touch of darkness. Early Miu Miu before it became modern prep uniform. She was also drawn to the razor clarity of Helmut Lang, the discipline of Jil Sander, and the sleek provocation of Azzedine Alaïa.
This was before algorithm-fed names. Knowing them required literacy and fluency: an eye for proportion, an understanding of cut, and the instinct to recognize talent before it went mainstream. If you knew, you knew.
Her genius lay in translation. She filtered conceptual minimalism through an American sensibility—straight posture, clean lines, nothing extraneous. Effortlessness was attainable, though the caveat is sharp: fit is everything. A white shirt becomes transcendent when the shoulders sit correctly, and the hem hits with intent. Her clothes looked inevitable, as though the closet rejected anything superfluous.
Why It Still Works Right Now
CBK has become the ’90s cool girl’s patron saint of style because her wardrobe is foundational. It contains the pieces already hanging in your closet: neutral colors, streamlined silhouettes, denim jacket and denim jeans, Mary Janes, and boots.
She never overdid it. Even in paparazzi shots—save for the infamous sidewalk arguments with JFK Jr.—she appeared composed, almost unbothered. All she had was a clean silhouette and an understanding that restraint can be magnetic, even if she looked like screaming at the top of her lungs.
Her style looks accessible. You could assemble it this week. She dressed like someone who had already decided who she was and declined to audition for approval. Which is why a television premiere decades later can revive her wardrobe without it feeling archival. The industry may spin through aesthetics at algorithmic speed, chasing its next micro-obsession, but CBK remains a fixed point.
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s style is the real romance here—far eclipsing Kennedy mythology and paparazzi flash. It’s the certainty, the clean line, the discipline to edit your life the way you edit your closet. To know who you are and dress accordingly. Isn’t that the love story we should be chasing for ourselves?
‘Love Story’ is a weekly release on Disney+ with new episodes every Friday until March 27
Photos: LOVE STORY (courtesy of Disney PH); JOHN AND CAROLYN and CAROLYN BESSETTE-KENNEDY (via Reddit)
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