Why Carolyn Bessette Kennedy Loved Prada

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Carolyn Bessette Kennedy is synonymous with timeless style.

The late publicist and socialite—once considered a shoo-in for first lady alongside husband John F. Kennedy Jr.—knew her personal style through and through; she didn’t embrace trends—in actuality, she rejected them. Instead, she dedicated herself to silhouettes, brands, and specific pieces that inherently worked for her. It’s why her sublime sweaters, luxe coats, and subtle accessorizing still dominate our social media feeds 24 years after her untimely passing. Even I have a personal Pinterest board dedicated to her best looks that I reference every fall.

Her style is finally properly documented in the new book CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion, by Sunita Kumar Nair. The 256-page offering details the American icon’s personal style evolution, as well as exclusive conversations and essays from fashion industry veterans like Gabriela Hearst, Mario Sorrenti, Yohji Yamamoto, and many others reflecting on Kennedy’s sartorial legacy. It’s simply a must-read (and even a clever holiday gift) not just for longtime fans of Kennedy, but for any fashion aficionado who celebrates style that endures.

Below, Harper’s Bazaar shares an exclusive excerpt from the upcoming book, reflecting on Kennedy’s affinity for power dressing and Prada.

The image of Carolyn wearing a vermilion-red checked Prada coat, blue jeans, and a black beanie, holding on to John, a streak of red also popping out from his scarf and hat, while walking their dog, Friday, is a monumental image of the couple, their style, and life in New York. There are many indelible images in my mind of Carolyn walking in New York, going about her daily business, and in most, she is wearing a coat—the majority of which are designed by Prada.

Most fashion designers have shared extensive discourses on their coat concepts because it carries a certain weight, both figuratively and materially, as a design piece. Yohji Yamamoto talks about how in the nineteenth century the winter was a very different experience to the poor. To them, owning one was essential to life, a protection from the elements. It is that need, to him, which is more important than the fashion aspect because it’s how the coat makes you “feel.” Dr. Valerie Steele, director of the Museum at FIT, agrees, saying that today “the functional component of the coat has been superseded by communication and symbolism; to speak about the ‘language’ of clothes is misleading, because it is more like ‘music’ as it creates a feeling or an ambience.”

While a coat would certainly make you feel a certain way, the reality is we all now own at least five. Claire McCardell, an American fashion designer of the twentieth century who was pivotal to American fashion, runway and sportswear, believed in a “collection of coats, long ones, short ones, coats that are capes, warm ones, not so warm ones, textured, knitted fabrics … coats ride buses, they take cabs, when you walk down an aisle in the theatre, the audience has already judged you, so you want to be looking your best.”

Women who are in the public eye, in front of a camera, are often politicians or royalty, have always used coats or dress coats as a focal point in their wardrobe. Carolyn’s mother-in-law, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, had already established it as her fashion precedent when she wore a scarlet double-faced wool Givenchy coat dress during the presidential campaign in 1959. Her predilection for Francophile fashion, however, had to be tempered for the inauguration. Hubert de Givenchy told Vogue that there were “many secret fittings … in case it was allowed.” He continues: “Jackie was very modern; her spirit was modern, she was a new image for America because he was a young president.” Jackie’s dress coats always had an overt ladylike quality to them, either in the details, buttons, color, finishing, or shape.

But Carolyn wasn’t going to go there, wearing any obvious saccharine trimmings or colors in her outerwear. She had her own coat song.

Carolyn’s red Prada coat is very Prada. The spring 1996 collection was based on a 1960s Formica kitchen print used on tiles, wallpaper, and curtains. The fashion reviews bordered on the acidic—you either loved or hated it. The collection, however, was considered the root to the Prada tree—led by a political feminist designer questioning the standard assumptions of beauty and luxury. Carolyn’s coat and color was not from the runway collection, but the print was comparable to another runway look, and it was made in John’s favorite color: red. The coat is Prada poetry at its best, a mocking wink on what we consider luxury. From every collection going forward, Mrs. Prada mixes fantasy and reality, functionality, and eccentricity. Textures, fabrics, embellishments, weights, values, traditions, and concepts are all at the mercy of Mrs. Prada’s intellectual eye.

Friends of Carolyn’s have often said that she was keen to deflect from her beauty, and the house’s modus operandi was the perfect conduit for her, as well as its position as the label of the nineties.

After her marriage to John, Carolyn chose Prada coats over any other fashion house. She goes as far as having two color variations of the same style: a military double-faced wool coat made in black and camel. The shoulder epaulettes, the belt, and the three-quarter-length silhouette offer a state of protection for the wearer. Mrs. Prada has often said that she wants the women who wear her clothes to feel brave, to be able to face their dreams and their fantasies.

In 1996, Carolyn uncharacteristically wore a green-checked Valentino coat for Jackie’s memorial service—a color that she rarely wore, and perhaps another gift from John during their Milan trip in 1997. Giancarlo Giacometti, partner to Valentino, agreed it was likely a boutique version of the fall 1996 runway coat. Her other coat contenders included a vintage leopard print, an astrakhan fur by Ann Demeulemeester, and one of her last coats, of course, a Yohji Yamamoto raincoat, which she wore in May 1999.

Excerpt from the new book CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion, by Sunita Kumar Nair, published by Abrams © 2023 H11, Inc.

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