If the imagery of slick Manhattan skylines, Upper East Side soirées, New England summers and Kennedy compounds hasn’t cemented FX's biographical romance anthology Love Story (which airs weekly on Disney+) as the water-cooler show du jour, then the tidal wave of '90s minimalist fashion certainly will.
Charting the famed relationship between Carolyn Bessette—a slick, insouciant publicist for Calvin Klein and perennial downtown darling—and John F Kennedy Jr—political scion and co-founder of the now-defunct George magazine—the limited series shines a spotlight on the notoriously private couple’s whirlwind entanglement. Thus far, we’ve seen their on-again, off-again origin story, their cataclysmic public breakdown in Central Park and a glimpse at their tragic undoing. However, for us at least, it's the fashion that's become the real focus of the show.
From her iconic Levi’s jeans to her collection of Prada knitwear and anything-but-basic basics from Petit Bateau, the wardrobe seen on actress Sarah Pidgeon is making a convert of sleek, understated style out of even the most stringent maximalist. Still, one would argue that it’s not her Yohji Yamamoto skirt-and-white-shirt set or floral Chanel midi dress that has gone down in history as her most iconic look, but her incredibly refined and understated wedding dress.
With CBK and JFK Jr’s nuptials taking centre stage in the sixth episode titled "The Wedding", the pared-back gown will once again be thrust into the spotlight. Ahead, we speak to the show’s costume designer, Rudy Mance, about the making of the dress, and dive into everything you need to know about the small island ceremony itself. From the custom Manolo Blahniks she walked down the aisle in, to the anti-bride colour she wore to her rehearsal dinner, read on for all the details on Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s wedding dress.
Everything to Know About Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's Wedding Dress
1. The Dress
To set the scene, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and John F Kennedy Jr tied the knot on 21 September 1996 at an intimate wedding ceremony hosted on Cumberland Island, just off the coast of Georgia in the U.S. The event was supposedly a secret, which made the understated simplicity of her wedding dress all the more captivating. Instead of a billowing gown befitting of marrying "America’s Prince", the then 30-year-old exchanged vows in a simple slip dress. Designed by Narciso Rodriguez, who was a close friend of hers, the ivory-coloured dress featured a simple cowl neck that draped elegantly across her frame.
The silhouette was completely revolutionary and reshaped the face of bridal fashion forever. Offering women an alternative to frothy shapes and stiff taffeta, the design was also a marker of a decade underscored by minimalism and decisive simplicity, the latter coming to summarise her fashion legacy.
"It was so simple, so elegant and so classic," says Mance. "It was the perfect dress that reflected who Carolyn was, which was equal parts ahead of its time [and] so of the time, all whilst being absolutely timeless. It changed the way we thought of modern wedding dresses." The Emmy-nominated costume designer, who has collaborated with Ryan Murphy nine times prior on period pieces like Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans tells me that the process of translating CBK's dress for the screen began with a sketch, followed by rigorous research.
Telling me that he "studied every single photo that was available of the dress", he looked at Narciso Rodriguez’s initial sketch, which was published by Vanity Fair, and watched The Lost Tapes to see how the dress moved. However, the real eureka moment came when the team stumbled across the remnants of the original material, fortuitously only a stone's throw from JFK Jr and CBK's Tribeca loft.
"We discovered that Narciso had bought a silk crepe fabric from a shop here in NYC that’s still around, called B&J Fabrics," explains Mance. Miraculously, they still had a very old and yellowed swatch of the original fabric, so through them, we reached out to the fabric mill in Italy and imported the exact same fabric. We custom-made the dress out of the original fabric Narciso used. It was important to me to be as exact as possible, not only out of respect to Carolyn Bessette, but also to Narciso’s beautiful design."
All in all, the finished dress seen in the show was the result of three to four prototypes Mance made in order to get the exact proportions right. "The most challenging thing to execute was the drape of the dress, the way it hung on Sarah [Pidgeon, who plays CBK in the show] and the way it moved on her as she wore it," he notes.
"It was such a simple dress, but so beautiful in how it almost flowed when she would walk, so the seams needed to be tweaked quite a bit to get the final shape of it. We tried different versions of the toile of the dress before we landed on the final recreation."
2. The Shoes
CBK’s bridal shoes weren't as widely discussed as her dress, but they were an extension of her refined and polished approach to personal style. For the occasion, she wore a pair of crystal-beaded satin sandals from Manolo Blahnik. A favourite of another '90s New York icon, Carrie Bradshaw, CBK’s relationship with the Spanish designer led to a slingback style named in her honour. These aren’t the exact pair she wore for the big day, though; she opted for a shape similar to the Callasli.
3. The Beauty Look
Another element that makes CBK’s wedding look so eternal is her hair and makeup. Echoing the understated essence of the ensemble, she wore her long, blonde locks in an unfussy low bun. It looked almost like something that she could’ve done herself in the morning, which only added to the effortlessness and elegant nonchalance that continues to define her. Her "something old" was the clip that kept the style in place, which formerly belonged to her late mother-in-law, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Later in the evening, as she had her first dance as a wife whilst wearing her husband’s tuxedo jacket as a shield from the brisk Atlantic breeze, she took her hair down, leaving loose waves resting casually on her décolletage. As for makeup, her complexion was kept buttery-soft and matte, whilst forgoing a strong lip or eye look really let the elegance of the dress shine through.
4. The Bouquet
CBK carried a small bouquet of lilies of the valley, which she clutched in her white-glove-encased hands. The flowers also held sentimental value, as she once again honoured Jackie, who was known to have adored lily of the valley to the extent that she had them on her breakfast tray every morning to wake up to the scent.
5. The Guest List
CBK and JFK Jr opted for a modest chapel, the First African Baptist Church, for the candlelit ceremony. Established in 1893, the one-room building hosted 40 of their closest family and friends.
Amongst the attendees were Kennedy’s cousin, Anthony Radziwiłł, and his wife, former journalist and Real Housewives of New York star, Carole Radziwiłł. The wedding party also included Kennedy’s nephew, Jack Schlossberg, who is a political correspondent, writer and commentator currently running for a congressional seat in New York.
6. The Venue
For the reception, guests gathered at the Greyfield Inn, anhistoric mansion built in the early 20th century for the Carnegie family. Over a three-course dinner held under a white canopy, the newlyweds were said to have rung in the evening with music from Prince and cocktails on the porch. JFK Jr shared the following toast to his bride: "Carolyn has changed my life in a way I never thought was possible. She has just made me, tonight, the happiest man alive."