Search This Blog

Monday, July 5, 2010

Jackie O. Iconic Style Classic Beauty


In the 1960's Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis became a symbol of fashion for women all over the world during her husband John Fitzgerald Kennedy's term as president of the United States. French born American fashion designer Oleg Cassini was retained to create an original wardrobe for Jackie for her new role as First Lady in the fall of 1960. Cassini dressed Jackie in her iconic designs from 1961-1963 including her inaugural gown and coat. Her clean tailored suits, sleeveless A-line dresses and little pill box hats were an overnight success and became known as the "Jackie" look, now we call it the "Jackie - O." look. Although Oleg Cassini was her primary designer, she also wore ensembles from other great French designers such as Coco Chanel, Hubert de Givenchy, and Christian Dior.

Jackie's 1960's First Lady style was copied by many commercial manufacturers and a large population of women worldwide. Her style is iconic, classic, imitated and is still being worn today.

I listed a few Vintage Jackie O. style dresses today on etsy in my SalvationScraps shop, you can find them in my vintage clothing section .

Vintage Gold Brocade Wiggle Dress 1960s Satin Lame Finish Rose Design



You can see more vintage and reconstructed handmade clothing and accessories at SalvationScraps


I also found some other Jackie O. items on etsy for my wish list!

An uncut vintage Pill Box Hat pattern

2 comments:

Vic said...

I grew up in NYC (born in 1951). I was in junior high school in 1964 (I was 13). My friend Linda and I like to skip school and go to upper 5th Avenue and window shop the fancy stores. We'd stay on the public bus to school in the morning and get off at the subway. We rode the train to 55th and 5th Ave. We got out of the subway in front of the St. Regis hotel at about 8:30 am. In trying to recall what season it was, I'm thinking it was late spring, the days were getting warmer. The Avenue was unusually quiet, little traffic, few people as we climbed the stairs out of the station. We watched as a lone woman emerged from the hotel. To our surprise, it was Jackie Kennedy. My friend and I stood still and said in unison, "Hello Mrs. Kennedy". She stopped, smiled, bent toward us, and said, "Why aren't you girls in school?" "We're just late" we lied. "Ok," she said, "Better get going, then." "Ok". We stood and watched her walk away (it seemed to me that she floated, she was so graceful) and she went into the Rexall drugstore around the corner from the hotel entrance. She was wearing a medium-gold colored Chanel suit trimmed in black, and a matching pillbox hat. It seemed almost identical to the pink suit she wore the day her husband was assassinated, but in gold. I saw her very close, I recall the 'poodle' quality of the fabric, the golden buttons, the black trim. She really was lovely, sweet and confident in person, strikingly so. It's a lovely memory, but at the time, I couldn't tell my parents, because I'd been playing hooky.

Vic said...

I grew up in NYC (born in 1951). I was in junior high school in 1964 (I was 13). My friend Linda and I like to skip school and go to upper 5th Avenue and window shop the fancy stores. We'd stay on the public bus to school in the morning and get off at the subway. We rode the train to 55th and 5th Ave. We got out of the subway in front of the St. Regis hotel at about 8:30 am. In trying to recall what season it was, I'm thinking it was late spring, the days were getting warmer. The Avenue was unusually quiet, little traffic, few people as we climbed the stairs out of the station. We watched as a lone woman emerged from the hotel. To our surprise, it was Jackie Kennedy. My friend and I stood still and said in unison, "Hello Mrs. Kennedy". She stopped, smiled, bent toward us, and said, "Why aren't you girls in school?" "We're just late" we lied. "Ok," she said, "Better get going, then." "Ok". We stood and watched her walk away (it seemed to me that she floated, she was so graceful) and she went into the Rexall drugstore around the corner from the hotel entrance. She was wearing a medium-gold colored Chanel suit trimmed in black, and a matching pillbox hat. It seemed almost identical to the pink suit she wore the day her husband was assassinated, but in gold. I saw her very close, I recall the 'poodle' quality of the fabric, the golden buttons, the black trim. She really was lovely, sweet and confident in person, strikingly so. It's a lovely memory, but at the time, I couldn't tell my parents, because I'd been playing hooky.