Are we still doing this in 2013? Writing about Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s style? Oh, yes. In fact, just like the books “What Would Buddha Do?” (WWBD) and “What Would Jesus Do?” (WWJD) for moral dilemmas, we need a “What Would Carolyn Wear?” for fashionphiles. How do you like this acronym: WWCBKW?

CBK is an eternal style icon whose name will only cease to be mentioned if fashion goes out of style.

Carolyn passed away at just 33 years old in 1999. She barely grew out of her 20s, so we don’t really know how her style would have evolved in the next millennium. Instead, she is forever cemented as the archetypal icon of Gen X 90s minimalism. With the 90s being the first decade of adulthood for many Gen Xers, it could only be imagined what the 2000s would have brought to her style. A safe bet is that her fashion would have stayed well-labled and classic-yet-on-trend. She would have definitely sat next to Anna Wintour at the Big Four Fashion Weeks—New York, London, Paris and Milan—several times by now, and, perhaps, working at Vogue or a fashion house, but there is also a likelihood that she could very well be wearing a street style outfit like the one above: All black with a neutral bag, and—gasp!—a splash of bright color to break it up. Yep, that’s right, a pair of green mirrored aviators because it’s 2013, after all, and she would want to shake things up a bit to blow your fashion mind.

Don’t think so? Bright green Ray Bans too flashy for CBK? Remember: one of her most sought after and well-remembered looks was a bright red, belted Prada coat. When she did color, she went bold and vivid.

If you think today’s top sunglasses trend—the 76-year-old Ray Ban brand—is too basic and omnipresent for her? Her famous headbands are from the 175-year-old C.O. Bigelow apothecary (natural pharmacy) in West Village, running $30 to $40. Style is not always about cost or name brands or bucking trends; style is about taking individual pieces that you love and making them your own.

Carolyn was following the sunglasses trend of the late 90s with her Selima Optique Aldo Frames. The frames we call “90s sunglasses today” or “CBK Style Sunglasses” were pervasive on the shelves from Barneys, Saks and Neimans to Macys and Sunglasses Hut to Claire’s. If you bought sunglasses in the late 90s, the style that is connected Carolyn, was actually worn by everyone and their mother, aunts and grandmothers in that era.

A case can be made that Carolyn’s street style has been more influential that her formal wear. The outfit she wore when John formally introduced her to the press as his wife the weekend after their wedding is said to be one of the most famous and recognizable outfits in American history.

Street style and color aside, let’s look at how CBK styled one the pillars of late 90s style: the all-black look that every Gen Xer wore to work, clubs and play. It might seem that Carolyn’s favorite color was black as you scroll through her looks below, but this was a style trend she was part of and did not initiate.

Street style and color aside, the black-on-black theme of the late 90s was so sartorially authoritative that Carolyn chose it for her first major magazine photo shoot with Vanity Fair in 1999. The all-black uniform that persisted into the early 2000s was uncompromising to Gen X fashionistas, and it was also an inflexible color choice for Carolyn, as well—to the point that John’s assistant has said that he commented on how he was fed up with the ebony attire on all the women around him in the office and at parties.

So, the steady stream of Carolyn’s head-to-toe black outfits below are another testament to her also being a part of the cultural zeitgeist as much as she was creating the aesthetic she is known for today.

When the September 1999 Vanity Fair issue hit the stands, it was gut-wrenching. CBK enthusiasts were still in shock over the July tragedy. Print magazines—whether it was a sleek Condé Nast publication or US magazine—were “social media”. Fashion girlies had been anticipating the VF/CBK issue before the plane crash. The special September issues of top fashion magazines are notoriously heavier in weight—sometimes weighing at 2 to 3 pounds—but holding the CBK issue in your hands was emotionally heavy, feeling more like a funeral program. All the previous fun anticipation for the issue morphed into a sense of loss that this was not just a posthumous feature, but the first and last feature Carolyn would ever do. Camelot 2.0 for the Gen X generation did not have a happy ending just like it didn’t for The Silent Generation and Baby Boomers, who were children, during Camelot I.

To give context to where JFK, Jr. fell into the 90s zeitgeist: he was a member of the Baby Boom Generation, but his birth year is closer to Gen X than it is to older Boomers, so his tier has been termed Generation Jones, a micro-generation born between 1954 and 1965. Gen Jones is seen as a “sandwich” generation between traditional Baby Boomers and Generation X, where his persona with Gen Xers was the cool older brother every girl (and some guys) had a crush on and every guy tried to emulate.

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in the ultimate

late 90s Gen X fashion girl aesthetic:

head-to-toe noir

 

Still a naysayer about the idea that Carolyn would be wearing bright green Ray Ban-style aviators for her splash of color in 2013?

She Did This …

Black Tights With White Strappy Heels

(I dare you to do black tights with white strappy heels! I dare you!)

The only “color” is a gray skirt and her famous tortoiseshell headband. J. Crew has a similar headband on their shelves from time to time.

Sleek and Chic 

One day they were here, young, cool, stylish and fiery, their faces on every magazine cover, his name mentioned daily on every celebrity news show and his famous initials—JFK—written into sitcom script punchlines, referring to his hotness or pedigree, and she being photographed in her Gen X urban chic style, and the next day—in an instant—they were gone, into the sunset of forever, but we will never forget.