The Way She Wore It: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and a Life in Fashion

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was the beautiful fashion PR who married
the most eligible bachelor in America, John Kennedy Jr. The
couple, and Carolyn’s sister Lauren, tragically lost their lives
when a plane flown by Kennedy crashed into the ocean in 1999.


But Bessette Kennedy had an outsize influence on style and
fashion in the 1990s that endures today, and her legacy has been
celebrated in a new book, CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life
in Fashion, by the British author and fashion creative director
Sunita Kumar Nair, with a foreword by Gabriela Hearst, and
preface by Edward Enninful, OBE.


On Episode 5 of Season 4 of Rodeo Drive - The Podcast, Kumar Nair
talks with Lyn Winter about her carefully curated and sumptuously
illustrated book, which tracks Bessette Kennedy’s fairytale rise,
starting with a job at a Calvin Klein store in a mall where she
was, ”plucked by a corporate executive at Calvin Klein, and
offered the golden ticket – come to New York.”


From there the willowy blonde with a knack for an ultra-chic and
minimal “thrown together look,” became a fashion muse herself, in
an era when American fashion traded padded shoulders and power
suits for the understated elegance and comfort of Klein, Donna
Karan and Ralph Lauren.


Kumar Nair shares anecdotes about the celebrities – Kate Moss,
Jennifer Aniston, Sharon Stone – and the great names in fashion
and design who worked with Bessette Kennedy, and were inspired by
her.  


She says the photographer Mario Sorrenti “remembers a time when
they were sitting on the floor, talking about what the goals were
for the advertising,” and corporate would want to know, “what
does Carolyn think?”


She also talks about Bessette Kennedy’s powerful sense of self,
wearing what pleased her despite societal expectations. When she
married into American royalty, she might have taken to “wearing
perhaps Dior or Yves Saint Laurent,” as well as the jewelry she
inherited from her late mother-in-law Jackie Kennedy, also a
fashion icon. “But instead she chose to wear Yohji Yamamoto and
Ann Demeulemeester, and I think the only piece of jewelry (of
Jackie Kennedy’s) that she would wear often was Jackie's Cartier
Tank.”


Finally, Kumar Nair explains how Bessette Kennedy’s allure
endures today, in part because of how she approached life and
clothes, with discretion and simplicity. “I think there is just
this demand for her because there's a dignity in the way that she
lived and I think it's inspiring for people who didn't grow up
with her to pick up a book and discover her and her world.”


Season 4 of Rodeo Drive – The Podcast is presented by the Rodeo
Drive Committee with the support of The Hayman Family, Two Rodeo
Drive, Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, and the Beverly
Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau.


Season 4 Credits:


Executive Producer and Host: Lyn Winter


On behalf of the Rodeo Drive Committee: Kathy Gohari


Scriptwriter and Editorial Advisor: Frances Anderton


Editor and Videographer: Hans Fjellestad


Theme music by Brian Banks


Production Assistant: Isabelle Alfonso


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wherever you get your podcasts.


Visit the website: https://rodeodrive-bh.com/podcast/


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