Young Designers Interpret Classic Style of Former First Lady
She turned the pillbox hat into a sensation, favored simple Givenchy dresses that were copied the world over, had perfect posture and carried extra nylons at all times in case of a run.
In short, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had style, and, although she passed away last year, women continue to copy her look. This spring they’re donning simple chemise dresses, boxy suits, narrow-fitting pants and oversized sunglasses, all inspired by a woman known simply as Jackie.
Jackie remains the epitome of grace and style both to older women who emulated her when she was First Lady and to women in their 20s who are discovering her charms through reproductions ofphotographs that have recently appeared in magazines such as Vogue and Life.
Jackie’s lasting influence on fashion began in the early ‘60s when her husband hit the national campaign trail.
“Her every outfit was copied by women all over the world,” says Letitia Baldridge, former press and social secretary to Jackie while she was First Lady.
“It always amazed me--it didn’t matter if they were 14 years old or 84 years old. They all wanted the pillbox hat and the sheath dress with the high-built shoulders. If she was seen at a White House state dinner in a white satin gown with a black bodice, sewing machines all over America started to hum. She had enormous taste and style and meticulous grooming.”
Jackie was one of the first women to wear a sweater tied loosely around her neck and tight-fitting pants, she says. Yet Baldridge maintains it was Jackie’s overall grace and good taste that made women copy her, rather than any one outfit.
“With her, always less was more,” Baldridge says. “She never went out of the house looking like an overdecorated Christmas tree.”
As did millions of women around the world, Alexandra Stanton of La Jolla wanted to be just like Jackie in the ‘60s.
“I had all the darling little two-piece suits and hats,” says Stanton, a Jackie contemporary. “I made them all myself.” Stanton had what she calls a “vicarious rapport” with Jackie. Friends have often told her she looks like Jackie, with her dark brown hair and classical features.
“Jackie was one of the first women who was attractive, who received notoriety and who wasn’t a movie star.” she says. “You felt she was a real woman. She seemed to be someone to emulate.”
Stanton’s daughter, Sandra Harvey, is an Orange County fashion designer who belongs to the younger generation of women who are gaining a newfound appreciation for Jackie’s style.
Says Harvey: “Jackie was very chic and sophisticated. She had style and knew how to dress. She knew what kind of dresses to put on her body to make it look the best.
“She’s been an influence on my designs, especially in suitings--the boxy shapes with the cuffs and collars and the big buttonholes,” Harvey says.
At the Sandra Harvey Boutique in Costa Mesa, Harvey offers the kind of simple designs Jackie wore, but Harvey’s dresses are often made of form-fitting stretch velvets and matte jersey knits. There are unadorned tank dresses and chemises as well as suits with French cuffs. One long chemise comes in black stretch velvet ($225). There’s also a line of Jackie-inspired sunglasses by Robert LaRoche with big round frames in black or a leopard print.
Jackie has influenced Harvey in one other area: hair.
“My hair is in a bob--always,” she says.
For fashion designer Holly Sharp of Corona del Mar, Jackie has become a kind of fashion muse.
“She’s been really inspirational,” Sharp says. “She was a real icon of the early ‘60s, and that was my favorite period in fashion.”
Sharp looks through books and photographs of Jackie for ideas when designing her spring and summer collections.
“I read everything about her. She had a really strong sense of style. She had a really good eye for what looked best on her,” Sharp says.
“Jackie wore clothes that concealed her body flaws. She kept it simple. She had broad shoulders and thin arms, so she wore a lot of sleeveless dresses. It was a good silhouette for her.”
Jackie also favored sandals to camouflage her large feet, Sharp says, and she stayed away from light-colored pumps.
“This year all of my models are wearing the kind of Bernardo sandals Jackie wore.”
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For spring, Sharp is introducing her “Jackie O slack”--lean pants with a back zipper--as well as a variety of Jackie-style suits.
“It’s time for them,” Sharp says. “To 24-year-olds, she’s a new icon, and they’re really following her.”
Sharp’s suits have jackets with a slight A-line shape that button to the collar and French cuffs ($130) and matching short skirts ($58) or narrow slacks ($88) in lightweight merino wool in pastel hues.
“Jackie wore colors you don’t see a lot of First Ladies wearing, like lemon yellow, lavender and baby blue, and those are colors we’re doing for spring,” Sharp says.
Some Jackie wanna-bes have taken their devotion to the former First Lady one step further by sporting authentic vintage Jackie-style clothes from the ‘60s. At Gasoline Alley in Orange, there’s a steady demand for pillbox hats and boxy suits from the days of Camelot. Even high school girls are dumping grunge for Jackie’s clean, classic looks, says Donna Saucedo, owner of Gasoline Alley.
“Jackie had such great style,” Saucedo says. “She was in a class by herself.”
