A very famous item of clothing from Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's wardrobe will be under auction at Bonhams this June. Bessette Kennedy's style is a subject of interest for fashion lovers and Kennedy enthusiasts alike, and for good reason. The Calvin Klein publicist and wife to John F. Kennedy Jr. is often given the nickname the "ghost influencer" as she continues to influence the quiet luxury aesthetic more than 24 years after her death. This July, it will be the 25th anniversary of her, her husband, and her sister, Lauren Bessette's death after the tragic plane crash the trio endured.
Bessette Kennedy's Yohji Yamamoto dress that will soon be for sale was worn to dinner in 1998 at the Supper Club and then a performance from the Parsons Dance Company afterward. The dress belonged to Bessette Kennedy's childhood best friend Sasha Chermayeff. Chermayeff was within the couple's private inner circle and even named Carolyn and JFK Jr. as godparents to her children.
“After a couple of months of conversations, the timing just felt right with the book ‘CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion’ coming out,” said Marissa Speer, head of
Bonhams Handbags & Fashion Department, told WWD.
“Nobody embodies quiet luxury than more than she did. There’s a purposeful reason for the way that she dressed herself. These beautiful pieces that we see aren’t the pieces that are a trend at the moment, but they’re pieces that you can’t tell when they were made unless you know what to look for in a label. They’re forever perfect [pieces],” said Speer continued.
The coffee table book CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion was released late last year and is penned by author Sunita Kumar Nair.
“The global press, Kennedy Jr.’s circles and Kennedy admirers were mostly quite perplexed by her dress choices. The patrician labels such as Chanel or Dior with their obvious house signatures of fabric and hardware were too obvious for Carolyn," Nair told WWD. "Her fashion choices weren’t considered easy fashion bites; the designers she favored were mainly worn by the fashion industry, so she sort of made it more mainstream by wearing it for public events. While it wasn’t necessarily appreciated at the time, it was groundbreaking for time to come.”