Fashion
Jackie for dummies
Jackie O. A week ago I hardly knew anything about her. Yeah okay, I would’ve recognised her on a photo (also because she always looks so cool and stylish) and I knew she was dating Kennedy. That was about it, though. I’ve learned a lot in the past few days. Actually, I can’t get enough of May-Britt’s and our marketing director Marte’s stories. They can go on for hours about everything Jackie. Her lovers, family, her tragedies and her fashion. And trust me, it’s all so exciting and interesting that I designed a mini lecture on Jackie for everyone who wants to know more about her:
Jackie facts
- Oleg Cassini (also one of Grace Kelly’s best friends) was the domestic designer of the first lady period. Jackie had a love for French designers, but John made her choose American designers.
- Consequently, her famous pink suit with blue bands wasn’t a ‘real’ Chanel, it had been made by an American atelier. The materials and the pattern were Chanel’s (so Chanel did approve it), but made in the USA to prevent a patriotic hassle.
- Typically Jackie in the first lady years: A-line dresses, even (pastel) colours (hardly any prints), three quarter sleeves with long gloves, pillbox hats, and a short bouffant hairdo.
- The designer of the pillbox hats was Halston. Who said that she had a particularly large head.
- From the moment Jackie set foot in the white house, the candelabras were put on the table at diner time (which, apparently, used to be locked up in a cupboard somewhere).
- Typically Jackie in the Onassis years: jeans, flared trousers, black turtlenecks, (Hermès) shawls, big sunglasses, longer hair. If in black/white: black on top and white below. Otherwise, she thought she resembled a waiter too much. It was a statement that she wore jeans in public.
- On her wedding day with Onassis (on his Greek private island Skorpios) she wore a lace dress from Valentino. Just like Maxima!
- Her sister Lee (Radziwill, her second husband’s surname) turned out to have a long affair with Onassis. She was really bummed when he eventually married her sister. Lee was the interior decorator of the stars for a while, an Eric Kuster avant la lettre.
Quotes
- The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.
- The first time you marry for love, the second for money, and the third for companionship.
