It has been nearly three decades since her tragic death, yet Carolyn Bessette Kennedy has re-emerged as the new, and unexpected, conservative style it-girl. Despite the Democrat dynasty she married into, her influence on culture and conservative fashion is taking over.
In the internet sensation FX limited series on Hulu, “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette,” Ryan Murphy introduces a younger generation to the iconic couple and their even more iconic style. The show has taken over social media, sparking conversations about conservative fashion, even prompting some to organize pop-up JFK Jr. lookalike contests in Washington, D.C. and New York City.
The show perfectly captures Bessette’s classic 90’s, minimalist conservative look: black cigarette trousers, knee-length skirts and dresses, perfectly tailored Levi 571’s, long black coats, high-neck tops, and white crisp button-downs. She wore slingback heels, loafers, black boots, and sometimes a tortoiseshell headband.
This isn’t anything new for conservatives on Capitol Hill, this is the everyday uniform. Sleek, minimalistic, neutral, classic, and—unironically—conservative.
Thanks to Bessette, dressing like a conservative is the newest trend.
“Everyone is trying to copy her outfits after seeing Love Story,” Liz Teich, a New York-based stylist, told The Guardian. The stylist, with over 500,000 followers on Instagram and millions of views on TikTok, started showing her followers how to build a capsule wardrobe following “CBK’s Style.”
Regardless of political affiliation, young women are now flocking to Loft to buy Bessette’s much worn roll-neck sweater, ditching the crop-tops and short skirts for more appropriate styles, begging Zara to return to what they once were—the go to place for basics—and even traveling to New York just to go to C.O. Bigelow, where you can get the same sleek headband Bessette often wore.
Vogue Magazine even created a blueprint for readers to buy look-a-likes for some of her iconic photographed outfits.
Her look fit her role at Calvin Klein where she started as a sales rep and worked her way up to the production director, a role where she heavily influenced the brand.
“She entered the fashion world like Venus coming up out of the ocean,” George Carr, brother to Klein’s creative director, told PEOPLE. “Calvin saw it immediately. Everyone was talking about her.”
After years of risky clothes and fast-fashion overturning every season, the Democrat Kennedys have made ‘conservative’ the trend.
