carolyn bessette-kennedy
It’s nearly impossible to discuss Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy without first considering her image. After all, nearly 25 years since the fateful plane crash that took the lives of both her and her husband, John F. Kennedy JR, images are really all that we have left of her. Even when she was alive, images made up much of how people saw her. It’s oft said to be hard to describe what exactly makes an it girl “it"— “it” being the undefinable shimmer that draws people to a person—but to consider the image of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy is to be immediately drawn to her.
Obviously, she was beautiful. You can’t deny the fact that the perennial “it girl” phenom is often beautiful. From her bleach blonde hair to her alabaster skin and slender brows, Carolyn personified a particularly 90s era beauty ideal. She was a dream girl—the girl that women want to be and men want to be with. (Men—me—want to be her, too). She upheld a white, Eurocentric standard of beauty in her high cheekbones and icy blue eyes. She was an ideal woman. Her style, much like her looks, has also proved timeless for its chic minimalism. One might even argue that the entire “quiet luxury” movement in fashion has been predicated on images of Carolyn with brands like The Row and Bottega Venetta taking inspiration for Carolyn’s “throwaway chic” style.
To become an image is in many ways to lose your voice. In its place, narratives are built by the media and who ever happens to stumble across said images. It’s part of what makes an it-girl it: people view her image and immediately think they know what her life is. They build up unauthorized lore in their minds, perpetuating myths and untruths. An image mythologizes a person. Andy Warhol knew it when he turned the pop culture figures of the latter twentieth century into icons through his art.
Consider this image of the it girl:
Carolyn is all 90s minimalism, from her hair (pulled back, simply) to her nearly bare (aside from a chic red lip) face to her all-black ensemble. To put it simply, she’s the kind of woman that you can’t help but stare at. Whether it’s in envy or awe or something else, her image inspires a reaction in people. You instantly want to know her and know about her. Who is she? What kind of lipstick does she use? How does she keep her hair so shiny? Her skin so clear? And then, who is she with? Are they living a fairytale?
Of course, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s icon status is propagated as much by her image as by the modern-day fairytale her life appeared to be. It’s in the hyphen. “-Kennedy.” To be a Kennedy is to be associated with an American dynasty. From Camelot (Carolyn is not unlike her predecessor Jackie O) to tragedy and heartbreak down every road, the Kennedy family is a mythology in and of itself. Carolyn was working as a publicist for Calvin Klein when she met John F. Kennedy JR. and was swept off her feet. (Or was it the other way around?) If Carolyn represented the 90s female ideal, then John F. Kennedy JR (often referred to as JFK JR) was the male ideal. Handsome, stylish, and with a good job, JFK JR wasn’t just from a prominent family, he was from the family. He was royalty. Together, he and Carolyn were the 90s JFK and Jackie—an All-American 90s it-couple. Images of Carolyn somehow don’t feel complete without John by her side. She and John were the whole package—America’s prince and princess.
Carolyn was an intensely private person and hardly ever granted the press an interview. Her silence only served to further the mysticism around her. The press had free rein to ascribe to her whatever they wanted to. Rebecca Mead, of New York Magazine described Carolyn in 1996 as “a man’s woman.” Was this true? Was Carolyn “one of the guys?” Regardless of whether or not she was, it was the over-arching narrative that the press ran with. Actress Rosamund Pike said that director David Fincher told her to study old photos of Carolyn in preparation for her role as “Amy Dunne” in Gone Girl (2014). Fincher found similarities in the way Carolyn’s image was plastered across magazines and tabloids to the way Amy Dunne’s image is plastered across the media after she goes missing and is considered to be possibly murdered by her own husband to be. Both women are defined by their husbands in the media. Both women lack a voice or any say in how their image is being used. In Gone Girl, Pike delivers the iconic “cool girl” monologue in which Amy describes man’s ideal woman. “Cool girl is hot. Cool girl is game. Cool girl is fun.” Was Carolyn a “cool girl?”
The mass media attention reportedly caused great strain in the couple’s relationship. In 1999, the couple died in a plane crash over Martha’s Vineyard. JFK JR was piloting the plane. Rumor has it that the couple was separated at the time of their death and were headed for divorce. Rumor has it that Carolyn used cocaine to deal with her problems. Sources close to the couple have since refuted these rumors. Was it all true? The mystery only further serves to propagate the mysticism around Carolyn and John. The plane crash was ruled an accident. Haze. A dark night. The crash was chalked up to “spatial disorientation.” America’s it-couple felled by plane crash. What would they have accomplished together had they never stepped foot on that plane?
I ask these questions because Carolyn, above all, inspires questions. What if? So much of her appeal is in the mystery of her. Images of her reveal nothing. Her icy blue eyes give nothing but cool indifference. What is she thinking? Carolyn died nearly 25 years ago, and yet she still remains in the public consciousness. From her style to her beauty to her seemingly perfect life, Carolyn remains the blueprint for the modern woman who “has it all.” People stare for hours at images of the Mona Lisa, searching for any clue as to who she was and what she was thinking. Carolyn’s image is that of a modern-day Mona Lisa, her allure is in everything we don’t and can’t know about her.
x, Bryce