Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s clothes are headed to auction
For dedicated followers of fashion, two coats and a jacket from the late style icon Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy are valued at more than $US50,000 in an upcoming Sotheby’s sale.
RoseMarie Terenzio went on a memorable date in 1996. Not because of the man, who she thinks was “in a band,” but because her boss’s wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, let her borrow a faux-leopard coat to wear for the occasion — then insisted she keep it. Next month, that coat is going up for auction at Sotheby’s, where it’s expected to sell for thousands of dollars.
The coat is one of three pieces from the late style icon’s wardrobe heading to the auction block. Opening on Nov. 27 and running through Dec. 17, the sale also includes a black Prada coat and a Yohji Yamamoto jacket, worn by Bessette-Kennedy in the 1990s at the height of her star power.
Terenzio consigned all three items to the auction house, which handled a sale of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s estate in 1997. Sotheby’s estimates that these three items will sell for over USD$50,000, a testament to Bessette-Kennedy’s enduring appeal.
Twenty-five years after her death, Bessette-Kennedy is still inspiring scores of stylish women. Known for her classic taste, she rarely strayed from neutral colours and favoured tortoiseshell headbands, black sunglasses and straight-leg trousers — items that fit perfectly in the “quiet luxury” mood boards of today. Online, Bessette-Kennedy has fervent fans who chronicle her style on accounts such as @carolyn_iconic, @carolynbessette and @allforcarolyn, which together have hundreds of thousands of followers.
Terenzio felt Bessette-Kennedy’s influence firsthand. As John F. Kennedy Jr.’s, executive assistant from 1994 until 1999, she knew the couple well up until they died in a plane crash in 1999. She said Bessette-Kennedy gave her a few pieces of clothes in a casual, “oh, this looks so good on you,” way.
“I wore them for 10 years. Then time goes by, you wear different things and you have a different life,” said Terenzio, who now works as a strategic communications and crisis management specialist. “The way I looked at it was, What are these pieces doing in my closet when I don’t have the proper means to store them and they’re not being appreciated by people who would have an interest in them?”
While researching for her book, JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography, which came out this summer, Terenzio started to realise that the clothes hanging in her closet had a greater significance. She also has noticed a surge in interest around Bessette-Kennedy’s style around the anniversaries of her death.
Terenzio said she thought Bessette-Kennedy would be tickled by the news of the sale — which isn’t the first from her wardrobe. Another one of Bessette-Kennedy’s Yohji Yamamoto garments sold for USD$8,960 this June at Bonhams.
A fashion publicist who worked for Calvin Klein, Bessette-Kennedy mixed designer labels with high-street finds. Terenzio remembers her wearing Nine West heels and Hush Puppies. “As much as she knew about the cut of something and clothes, she wasn’t a snob about clothes at all,” Terenzio said. Still, she knew her way around black-tie attire. Her simple Narciso Rodriguez wedding slip still sets trends for brides.
“When you look at the three pieces together, we have a mini capsule collection of her defining style,” said Lucy Bishop, a fashion specialist at Sotheby’s, who approached Terenzio about consigning the garments. The faux-leopard coat, circa 1969, proves that she didn’t need to rely on designer labels. The Prada coat, which was one that Bessette-Kennedy owned in multiple colours, shows that she stuck to what she liked. The Yamamoto jacket, meanwhile, conveys her love of Japanese designers. “They’re remarkably ordinary clothes from her extraordinary life,” Bishop said.
The sale reflects a growing interest in archival fashion. On the red carpet, stars like Zendaya, Margot Robbie and Angelina Jolie have worn vintage designs from legendary couturiers like Madame Grès and Thierry Mugler. Law Roach, who styles Zendaya, is known to buy at auction.
But clothes at auction can fetch massive sums even if they are not couture. For example, Princess Diana’s black sheep sweater from British knitwear brand Warm and Wonderful. It sold for USD$1.14 million at Sotheby’s in 2023, well over its five-figure estimates and exponentially more than the couple hundred a present-day remake from the brand would run.
To price an item, Bishop looks at the construction, the materials and the maker. However, the previous owner can make an “astronomical difference” in the value. “It’s cultural value, historical value,” she said.
The Wall Street Journal
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