Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis An Enduring Icon

By M a l i B r i a

Table of Contents:

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Who was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis?2

The Pink Suit3

The Assassination4, 5

A Tragic Icon5, 6

Andy Warhol Prints7

A Fashion Icon9, 10, 11, 12

A Silent Icon8

Television During the 1960’s

Bibliography

Who was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis?

the United States John F. Kennedy durring his pres-idency from 1961 until his assassianiton in 1963. Then in 1968 Jackie married Aris-totle Onassis. From the time Jackie was the First Lady, until she died from cancer in May 1994, people around the world admired her as icon and continue today too. Jackie is linked with her husband JFK’s assassi-nation because she was sit-ting next him as he was fatal-ly shot and Jackie was then coverd in his blood. The as-sassination is argued the day Jackie became a tragic icon.As Jackie was in the public

eye, America took note on the clothing she wore. Jack-ie brought Parisian couture to America and then quickly became a trendmaker be-cause of her fashion choices. Jackie’s style is also consid-er to what made her fashion icon. Jackie’s ability to re-main silent also helped her as an icon. Jackie never spoke of JFK’s affairs, his assassination or her battle with cancer. Jackie always remained silent icon.

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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was the First Lady of the United States and wife of President of

Jackie and John F. Kennedy, 1959.

First offcial White House photograph of the First Lady Jackie

Kennedy, Washington DC, 1961

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The Pink Suit Jackie had a perfrence for wearing Parisian Couture. Some of her fa-vorite designers included Channel, Dior, Lanvin, Cardin, Givenchy, and Balenciaga. While Jackie was unveiling Pa-risian fashion to American women, she was receiving negative criticism. Pat Nixon, wife of Richard Nixon, who was running against John F. Kennedy for president, said that she had doubts about Jackie’s patriotism. Along with other criticism from the media, Jackie decided to have U.S designers, like Oleg Cassini and Chez Ninon, re-make Parisian couture for her. The most famsous copies of Parisian couture is a copy is a Chez Nion’s pink wool suit. It was an au-thorized copy of a Chanel pink bou-

Above: Jackie and JFK arriving in Dalas, Texas the day of the assassination.

Below: Chanel's original pink wool suit .cle e suit trimmed with a navy blue col-lar made in 1961. Jackie has woren the pink suit at least six time between 1961-1963.

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life.t ime.com

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On November 22, 1963, Chez Ninon’s pink wool suit became part of history. It was the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated while driving in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas with Jackie sitting right next to him, while she was wearing her pink suit. Hours before the assassination, JFK asked Jackie to wear her

“Let them see what they’ve done. I want them to see.” It was not until Jackie got back to Washington D.C. early the next morning after her husband’s death that she took off her pink suit off to give to her mother put it in a box to store in her home and inscribed “November 22, 1963” on the box top.

pink suit for him, because it was one of his favorites. President Kennedy said that Jackie looked “smashing” in her pink suit. Within seconds Jackie in the pink suit “became universal-ly recognizable, the quintessential, blood-spattered relic of assassina-tion…The pink suit is central to howthe assassination is remembered.” The pictures of Jackie that fol-lowed assassination became engraved

Today Jackie’s pink suit is in the National Archives hidden away from public view. The suit is still un-cleaned with the blood stains remaining and stored in a tem-perature and humidity controlled and shielded from sunlight room. The pink pillbox hat and her white gloves went missing immediate-ly after the assassination. Jackie’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy gave

“Let them see what they’ve done. I want them to see.”

in people’s minds as it flashed on televisions, newspapers, and magazines. Jackie refused to take off her suit that was splattered with JFK’s blood as she went to the hospital and when Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president. As her aides strongly encouraged Jackie to take off her suit, she adamantly refused and said,

the pink suit to the National Archivesand signed an agreement with the archives that her mother’s suit will be off the limits from the public until 2103. The Kennedy family be-lieves that the suit would cause stress for the nation and requested strict enforcement of keeping the pink suit from public view.

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Jackie and John F. Kennedy greeting people

the day of his assassination.lif

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The Assassination

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A TragicandSilent Icon

Jackie with her children Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr. and JFK’s mother behind waiting outside St. Mathew's for procession to cemetery.

"It was on the day

of the assassination

that ‘her image

became engraved

on our souls.’”

A Tragic Icon

Below: Jackie sti l l wear-ing the bloodstain suit

as Lydon B. Johnson is being sown in as the

President of the United States.

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November 22, 1963 is argued the day that Jackie became an icon. The day of JFK’s assassination, “her transformation to a symbol for the nation was virtually instantaneous.” The images of Jackie in her bloodstained suit standing by Lyndon B. Johnson on Air Force as he was sworn in as President of the

United States of America to other images of her in silence. She was photographed everywhere but remained silent except to tell the press when she refused to change her clothes. Writer, Joan Smith says “that the most telling point about the iconization (sic) of Jackie Kennedy is that her image is in extricably linked with grief…

It was on the day of the assassination that ‘her image became engraved on our souls.’” Jack-ie became an icon with in seconds because of her with her husband’s blood splattered on her. Smith says that to be an icon you have to have tragedy and grief. Smith says that the “harsh truth” is that “we like our icons best when they are in distress.” She notes that icons’ “unhappiness is the crucial equalising (sic) factor which disables

the darker emotions which rich, famous and seemingly powerful women might otherwise stir up - envy fear, anger. Movie stars and supermodels come and go, but none of them achieving the potent mix of beauty, silence and suffering which have set Jackie apart.

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Jackie wearing the blood-stained suit with her broth-er-in-law Robert Kennedy, as JFK's being placed into

the ambulance after the assassination.

Writer Joan Smith recognizes Jackie’s attribute of silence was her greatest strength and why she gains public admiration. Smith states that the “rule for aspirant female icons is as unbending as ever: say nothing.” Jackie never spoke of her husband’s assassination, his affairs with other women, or her own battle with cancer. She gave two interviews during her life, which cannot be released un-til 2067. Although Jackie’s iconization is di-rectly attached to grief, Jackie’s silence also-must be noted as a great strength. Her silence

and constant desire to not be photographed and out of the public view as much as possible pro-vided her with a special mystique and mystery that drove the public (and her style admirers) to even more consider her an icon. This is in direct contrast with today’s “wanna-be” icons, like the Kardashians, reality TV stars, and pop culture stars, who are striving to be as public as possible with posting “self-ies” on Instagram and tweeting what they are doing all day long on Twitter.

A Silent Icon

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Andy WarholPrints

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artnet.com

Only after Jackie became a widow, artist Andy Warhol

started to depict Jackie in his artwork.

1. Red Jackie The red color is the reminder of JFK’s blood “showered” on Jackie,

which is a “cruel mockery.”

2. Jackie TriptychWhich are three photos of Jackie at

JFK’s Funeral.

3. Jackie III a four-framed silkscreen that Jackie is transformed from a happy wife to

a widow.

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walkingoll ie.wordpress.com

A Fashion Icon

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Jackie was a “trendmaker, because whatever Jackie wore, the rest of America wore-and is still wearing.”

Jackie on her first day in India during her tr ip to India and Pakistan, 1962

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Fashion critic Samantha Critchell says that Jackie was a “trendmaker, because whatever Jackie wore, the rest of Ameri-ca wore-and is still wearing.” Women want-ed Jackie’s look and style. According to Pa-mela Clarke Keogh (author of Jackie Style), Jackie is a trendmaker because she took very few missteps. Critchell states that Jackie’s

Jackie’s “style is enduring because she wore classic shapes.” Jackie knew what clothes worked for her: “the stand-away neckline on her coats and suits worked with her wide face and dark hair. Ditto for the big buttons she was quite emphatic’ about because they were in proportion with her face.”

Jackie and JFK whi le tour i Al l iance for Progress projects in Lat in America, 1961.

Jackie in a apr icot Oleg

Cassin i dress in Udaipur ,

India , 1962.

Jackie dur ing JFK’s president ia l

campaign, 1960Jackie re laxing

in a chair , 1961

Protai t of Jackie by Jacques Lowe,

1960s.

Jackie knew how to make every day gar-ments look extraordinary. Jackie could take a man’s button-down shirt tied in a knot at the waist and paired with capri pants was a fash-ion state-ment.” Jackie could take clothes that anyone had and make it look extraordinary. Jackie also liked to pair her outfits with

simple accessories, like a scarf, small jewelry, or sunglasses. An iconic look of Jackie’s was her sun-glasses. “Onassis glasses or Jackie O’s are very large sunglasses. The glasses continue to be popular with women and celebrities.”

Right: Jackie wearing her Jackie O sunglasses at La Cote Basque Resturant in New York City, 1969.Left: Jackie wearing a sim-ple outfit paired with sun-glasses while in Rome, Italy, 1966 with her childeren.

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During the time Jackie was a young widow, a single mother, and her style was already at an iconic stage with the grief of the US at the horrific assassination of her husband JFK, the lifestyles of single wom-en had finally emerged on television in the 1960s and 1970s. Conaway and Tally dis-cuss how the new “single girl” of the 1960s and 1970s helped shape feminism and had significant influence on female viewers, es-pecially “girls and younger women, when it came to their own feminist awakening and friendship.” They analyze television’s new portrayal of single, career women: Ann Marie (Marlo Thomas) in That Girl, Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) in the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Rhoda Mor-genstern in Rhoda. These early shows pio-neered the role of single women on televi-sion and centered on female-centered friend relationships, their female independence, and how they interacted with their “nuclearfamily” and their “created ‘family’ of work, friends, and neighbors.” Conaway and Tal-ly briefly discuss how contemporary single women (Friends, Seinfeld, Sex and The City and Girls) are rarely connected with their nuclear family compared to the family con-nection of That Girl, Mary Tyler Moore, and Rhoda. Contemporary female single women are more connected in friendships with other women, and even men, which is

Television During the 1960’s

“portrayed as a positive source of support and nurturance.” Contemporary women strive for Jackie’s style and class. Jackie is a trendmaker in style, her Pink Suit, her silence, and her abil-ity to keep even the most tragic circumstanc-es of her life private may be a powerful lesson for 21st century women. It is what makes her the most enduring fashion icon of the world.

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SourcesAaron Art Prints. Andy Warhol’s “Red Jackie.” http://www.aaronartprints.org/warhol-redjackie.php.

Art Net Auctions. Andy Warhol’s “Jacqueline Kennedy III (Jackie III).” https://www.artnet.com/auctions/artists/ andy-warhol/jacqueline-kennedy-iii-jackie-iii-2.

Bruzzi, Stella. “Jacqueline Kennedy: White House Queen and Enduring Style Icon.” In Austrian Studies in En glish, Volume 103: Fashionable Queens: Body – Power – Gender, edited by Eva Flicker and Monika Seidl, 49-62. Frankfurt am Main, DEU: Peter Lang AG, 2014.

Conaway, Cindy and Peggy Tally. “Friendship and the Single Girl: What We Learned about Feminism and Friendship from Sitcom Women in the 1960s and 1970s.” In How Television Shapes Our World view: Media Representations of Social Trends and Change, edited by Deborah A. Macey, Kathleen M. Ryan, and Noah J. Springer, 107-125. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Lexington Books, 2014.

Critchell, Samantha. “Jackie Kennedy: Still a Force in Fashion.” Star Tribune, April 25, 2001. http://proquest. com.

Dyas, Brie. “12 Unforgettable Lessons from Jackie Kennedy (Photos).” The Huffington Post. http://www.huff ingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/style-lessons-from-jackie-kennedy_n_3660541.html.

Foster, Stephen. “The Less Mentioned Characteristic of Warhol.” Stephen Foster’s Blog. https://walkingollie. wordpress.com/2009/01/19/the-lesser-mentioned-characteristic-of-warhol/.

Hill, Amelia. “Escape: United States: America Looks Back to Jackie: An Exhibition on Sixties Style Icon Jacque line Kennedy Has Drawn Crowds to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Amelia Hill Charts the Revival of Jackie ‘Look’.” Observer (London, England), June 17, 2001, 14.

Horyn, Cathy. “Jacqueline Kennedy’s Smart Pink Suit, Preserved in Memory and Kept Out of View.” New York Times, November 13, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/15/fashion/jacqueline-kennedys- smart-pink-suit-preserved-in-memory-and-kept-out-of-view.html?_r=1.

InStyle. “Jackie: A Legacy of Style.” http://www.instyle.com/fashion/jackie-legacy-style#392110.

Kaye, Randi. “50 Years Later, Jackie Kennedy’s Pink Suit Locked Away From View.” CNN. November 21, 2013. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/us/jacqueline-kennedy-pink-suit/

Lytle, Lisa. “The Two Faces of Fall: Style: This Season, Women Can Be Mods Like Emma Peel or Cultivate a La dylike Jackie Kennedy Look.” The Orange County Register, September 30, 1996, Accent Section, E01.

NY Magazine. “The Jackie Kennedy Look Book.” http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/11/jackie-kennedy-look-book. html.

Rickerby, Art. “JFK Assassination: Photos of John and Jackie Kennedy in Texas, 1963.” Life. http://life.time. com/history/jfk-assassination-photos-john-and-jackie-kennedy-dallas-1963/?iid=lf%7Crelated#1.

Ridley, Jane. “The Secrets of Jackie’s Iconic Pink Chanel Suit.” New York Post, November 15, 2013. http://nypost. com/2013/11/15/the-secrets-of-jackies-iconic-pink-chanel-suit/.

Smith, Joan. “Thy Name is Woman. Jackie Kennedy Had It. So Did Marylyn Monroe. Margaret Thatcher Tried to Get It. Hilary Clinton Doesn’t Court It. And Princess Di Nearly Lost It. The Public’s Adoration is Not Easy to Win. Joan Smith Offers Beauty, Silence, and Suffering as the Essential Compo nents in the Creation of a 20th-Century Female Icon.” The Guardian News (Manchester, United Kingdom), July 30, 1994. http://proquest.com.

The Red List. “Muses: John F. Kennedy.” http://theredlist.com/wiki-2-24-525-970-1068-view-1960s-5-profile- john-f-kennedy.html.

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.Source: Huffingtonpost.com