In March 1998, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her husband, John F. Kennedy Jr., attended a film screening at the White House.
Ms. Bessette Kennedy’s signature blond hair was pulled back into a slick bun, and her makeup was minimal other than red lipstick. She wore a black twill wool dress from Yohji Yamamoto, one of her favorite designers. The dress was simple and understated but became something else entirely when draped on the slender frame of the discreet beauty who tried to stay out of the public glare even after joining a very public American family.
Ms. Bessette Kennedy later lent the dress to her friend RoseMarie Terenzio, who worked as an assistant and publicist for Mr. Kennedy. Ms. Terenzio wore it to an event promoting George, Mr. Kennedy’s magazine, and when she tried to return the dress, Ms. Bessette Kennedy told her to keep it.
Ms. Terenzio, who met Ms. Bessette Kennedy for drinks several times a week at the couple’s Tribeca loft and later wrote a memoir of her friendship with them, is now putting that black dress up for auction. The sale is timed to meet the resurgent frenzy around every outward expression of Ms. Bessette Kennedy — her sartorial choices, her singular mannerisms, her accessories — fueled by the new FX show “Love Story,” produced by Ryan Murphy, about her fairy-tale romance with and marriage to Mr. Kennedy, which ended in a plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard in 1999.
The show, alongside countless books about the pair and a three-part CNN documentary about Mr. Kennedy that aired last year, has introduced a new generation to the minimalistic style of Ms. Bessette Kennedy and revived a long-held obsession with her vibe, which exuded ease and accessibility alongside sophistication and refinement.
She loved fashion but was never obsessed with chasing trends, Ms. Terenzio, who is played in the series by Lily Lester, said. She invested in well-crafted, practical items, yet was not too precious about them. Her wardrobe was a sea of black, navy and camel items that could easily transition from White House to cocktail party or be lent to a friend.
“Her friends have mentioned that they would go bargain shopping with her, and they would come back with like three or four bags, and she would come back with one,” said Sunita Kumar Nair, author of “CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion,” who served as a fashion consultant on the FX show.
“It seemed like she was just throwing it together but you do have to have a really keen eye to dress that way,” she said. “There is a kind of intelligence to it.”
Three other items that Ms. Terenzio received from Ms. Bessette Kennedy are also up for auction, including two Prada coats in camel.
Ms. Bessette Kennedy wore these coats frequently, whether when she was meeting friends for dinner or walking the couple’s dog, Friday, who is also portrayed in the FX show. After she married Mr. Kennedy, coats by Prada became such a favorite that she had each style in black and camel, according to Ms. Kumar Nair.
The rest of the auction, which runs online until Tuesday, includes items from a fan of Ms. Bessette Kennedy’s fashion who did not want to be identified, and who collected vintage pieces identical to ones she wore, many of which were used as costumes for the FX production, Ms. Kumar Nair said.
Lucy Bishop, a fashion historian and founder of the Fashion Auctioneer, which is hosting the sale, said she realized a few years ago that Ms. Bessette Kennedy’s style was primed to cycle back into the mainstream spotlight.
“Typically, in my line of work, about 20 to 25 years need to pass before museums and historians start to re-examine a period of time,” Ms. Bishop said. And when it comes to Ms. Bessette Kennedy, “people have always been fascinated with her — even during the 1990s, every woman in New York wanted to dress like her.”
Last year, Ms. Bishop contacted Ms. Terenzio after reading that she had a close friendship with the Kennedys.
“I cold called her and said, ‘You don’t still happen to have those clothes, do you?’” Ms. Bishop said. “And she said, ‘Well, actually, yes, I do, and I don’t know what to do with them.’”
The items had been sitting in her closet, untouched, for years, Ms. Terenzio said, and while she is holding on to other items from the couple that feel more sentimental, there were some she was ready to part with. Last December, Ms. Terenzio and Ms. Bishop worked with Sotheby’s to auction off three of Ms. Bessette Kennedy’s coats, which drew tens of thousands of dollars.
The online, independent auction is the second time the women have worked together. Along with the items from the private collector, the auction lot’s simplicity speaks volumes about Ms. Bessette Kennedy’s timeless style, Ms. Bishop said.
There are coats, pencil skirts and shift dresses and, in contrast to other auctions of celebrity wardrobes, a noticeable absence of statement ball gowns or flashy jewels. Before coming under the glare of the Kennedy spotlight, she was, after all, just a young New Yorker who worked at Calvin Klein and developed a discerning, highly curated taste.
“When you went shopping with her, it wasn’t an exercise in consumption,” Ms. Terenzio said, explaining that Ms. Bessette Kennedy was very selective in what she purchased. “If we went to Prada, she would buy like, a cardigan and maybe a skirt, that was it. And she could mix and match those things with other things in her wardrobe.”
Alisha Haridasani Gupta is a Times reporter covering women’s health and health inequities.
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