Beth Louise

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So I've decided to start a new series. Initially it was going to be a "Fashion History" blog series, but I changed my mind. Instead I am going to start a "History" type of series, which will include fashion history, but also other bits and pieces that I fancy sharing and researching. I am also going to be starting a conspiracy type series as well. I am a History Student at Northumbria University, so the study of the past really interests me and hopefully you will find it interesting too. The series will be in a kind of essay style, sometimes the posts may be essays I have written for uni and edited to sound less formal, other times it will just be a bit of extra research.
Anyway, to start this off I am going to talk about the impact of Jackie O's (Kennedy) Pink Suit and how it made it's mark. Enjoy!

Jacqueline Kennedy’s “Pink Suit”, 1961-3, ‘John and Jackie Kennedy at Love Field in Dallas,Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963’ Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/ Getty Images accessed 17/02/2017

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) on 22 November 1963, is cemented in the USA and across the world as a defining moment of the 1960s, and indeed the century. The imagery of the event is recognisable in many ways, but one object has come to represent the event and the decade in its entirety. The relic: Jackie Kennedy’s Pink Suit. The suit has come to embody the glamour and wealth of the decade. However, the suit is also synonymous with the end of the promise presented by JFK and his graphic TV assassination. The suit is a useful tool for historians to analyse Jackie as a person, as well as the events on 22 November.

The suit itself was a ‘line by line’ authentic copy of a 1961 Chanel suit. It was reportedly assembled, using official Chanel fabrics and materials, at Chez Ninon in New York, Jackie’s go-to American based designer. The fact that the suit itself was a replica, and not an original Chanel, is an important point of interest. Prior to her husbands' presidency, Jackie was known for her preference towards Parisian couture. Reports of this preference even spurred Richard Nixon’s (JFK's presidential opponent) wife Pat, to defend US designers, whilst at the same time accusing Jackie of being unpatriotic. In fact, Jackie’s clothing expenses even led Nixon himself to state on radio that ‘Pat doesn’t have a mink coat, but she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat’ just to add insult to injury. By the time JFK assumed office, Jackie’s fashion choices had become a hot topic, which in turn made her subject to plentiful media scrutiny. As Stella Bruzzi notes in an essay about the Pink Suit, the First Lady’s wardrobe was ‘carefully stage managed’ as not to offend nor upset Americans, and the press, with her obsession for French designers. This was a time of immense patriotism. Cold war fears were at the forefront of American minds, WWII was still a recent event and it was the USA that had emerged victorious. Therefore, for Americans, it was plain to see that the First family should represent the USA in the media, with its values, morals and even in clothing choices. Jackie soon became a fashion icon. The suit’s background shows that it was integral for Jackie to use clothing as a tool to represent the USA in the new decade. It also helps historians understand how important clothing was to the First Lady.

The suit was worn several times prior to 22 November 1963. In March 1962, Jackie wore the suit on a state visit to London. Furthermore, almost a year prior to JFK’s assassination, Jackie wore the suit in October 1962 when the President of Algeria visited the White House.

Jacqueline Kennedy’s “Pink Suit” 1961-3, Jackie Kennedy in London 1962, accessed 21/02/17

Jacqueline Kennedy’s “Pink Suit” 1961-3, Jackie Kennedy and John F Kennedy Jr at the White House 1962, RobertKnudsen/White House, via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

New York Magazine reported that JFK told Jackie, prior to their Dallas trip, to ‘be simple — show these Texans what good taste really is’. It was also reported that it was JFK himself that picked out the Pink suit for the visit as it was his favourite. Furthermore, on the morning of the 22 November JFK quipped to the Chamber of Commerce at Fort Worth: ‘Two years ago I introduced myself in Paris by saying that I was the man who accompanied Mrs Kennedy to Paris. I am getting somewhat that same sensation as I travel around Texas. Why is it that nobody wonders what Lyndon and I will be wearing?’. As humorous as it is, the statement prevails. Jackie Kennedy set a precedent for future First Ladies to be heavily analysed and scrutinised by tabloid media on their appearance and fashion choices. An article on Michelle Obama, former First Lady and Lawyer, from the Daily Mail was entitled ‘FEMAIL takes a look back at some of her [Michelle Obama] most glamorous looks as First Lady’. Moreover, almost every article on the new First Lady, Melania Trump, focuses on her sense of style and ‘fashion moments’. This clearly shows Jackie Kennedy’s legacy which began in the 1960s.

The Life Magazine image featured in the November 1963 commemorative issue was, as noted by historian David Lubin, ’vividly colored’ and ‘crisply focused’. This is in stark contrast to the images that followed. These include Jackie on Air Force One with Lyndon Johnson as he is sworn into office, and an image of a solemn Jackie and Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) arriving at Andrews Airforce Base later that day. However, what all three images have in common is the Pink Suit, albeit a bloodied version of the suit. Focusing on the Life Magazine colour shot in Love field, Dallas, it is difficult to look at the image in its presumed intention. The photo shows Jackie and JFK smiling whilst being greeted by well-wishers. The pink suit stands out against the piercing blue sky, and all in all, the photo conveys the Kennedy’s all American, youthful appearance. Or else it would do if the viewer did not know the aftermath of this photo. Instead, the image itself is bittersweet. The perfection of the image is haunting and chilling when compared to the events in the motorcade in downtown Dallas. The juxtaposition of the bright pink suit is stomach churning in comparison to its bloodied state hours later. The image allows historians to evaluate and understand the hours leading up to JFK’s assassination.

Jacqueline Kennedy’s “Pink Suit” 1961-3, Jackie Kennedy on Air Force One with Lyndon B Johnson 1963, accessed 21/02/17

Jacqueline Kennedy’s “Pink Suit” 1961-3, RFK and Jackie arrive at Andrews Airforce Base 1963, accessed 21/02/17

Jackie Kennedy was reportedly urged to change after the tragedy but she resisted stating ‘I want them to see what they have done to Jack’. This is significant because the stains were that of presidential blood and also because it detached Jackie from being just a privileged woman in a magical dream world. The messy smears turned Jackie into a real woman, one who was suffering and stained, figuratively and literally. This, therefore, turned the beautiful suit into a relic of the sixties.

Jackie Kennedy and, in particular, her pink suit have come to define the sixties. Her style and glamour as a first lady is significant because it allowed her to become an idol in her own right. She ‘single-handedly began to create Camelot’ by transforming from a housewife to a symbol of sixties glamour, which women everywhere aspired to. Furthermore, the pink suit is historically significant as it is a surviving piece of an event that changed 1960s USA profoundly. It shows both the bright promise of the Kennedy Administration, and its bloodied tragic end. It has also become a tool for historians, to map out the events of 22 November 1963.

Sources:
Amoratis, Pandora “As Michelle Obama puts on a fashionable display at the inauguration, FEMAIL takes a look back at some of her most glamorous looks as First Lady” Daily Mail, 20/01/17, accessed 21/02/17 [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4137880/Michelle-Obama-s-ladylike-chic-looks-past- present.html]

Bruzzi, Stella The Pink Suit, in Bruzzi, Stella and Gibson, Pamela, Fashion Cultures Revisited: Theories, Explorations and Analysis, 2nd ed (London: Routledge, 2013)

Images of The Pink Suit [https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/enhanced/webdr02/2013/4/6/21/ enhanced-buzz-21275-1365297636-1.jpg?no-auto] accessed 21/02/17

Jacqueline Kennedy’s “Pink Suit” 1961-3, Jackie Kennedy and John F Kennedy Jr at the White House 1962, Robert Knudsen/White House, via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, [http:// www.nytimes.com/2013/11/15/fashion/jacqueline-kennedys-smart-pink-suit-preserved-in-memory-and-kept- out-of-view.html]

Jacqueline Kennedy’s “Pink Suit” 1961-3, RFK and Jackie arrive at Andrews Airforce Base 1963, [http:// www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2510064/Why-Jackie-Kennedys-blood-stained-pink-suit-hidden-public- view-2103.html] accessed 21/02/17

Lubin, David M., Shooting Kennedy: JFK and the Culture of Images, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003)

Van Syckle, Katie “How Chanel Helped Re-Create Jackie Kennedy’s Famous Pink Suit,” New York Magazine, 01/12/16, accessed 21/02/17 [http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/12/how-jackie-recreated-that- famous-pink-chanel-suit.html.]

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