Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years: Selections from the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum - Softcover

Hamish Bowles; Arthur M. Schlessinger, Jr.; Rachel Lambert Mellon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0870999826 ISBN 13: 9780870999826

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001

Synopsis

Photographs of the former first lady and the suits, dresses, and gowns she wore during her White House years accompany essays describing each outfit's history.

About this title

Review:

Did the clothes make Jackie, or did Jackie make the clothes? Decide for yourself: Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years is a stunning catalog of some of Jacqueline Kennedy's most important dresses as worn during her years as first lady of the United States. As visually sleek and elegant as Mrs. Kennedy herself, the book offers a beautiful analysis of the stunning, simple outfits that typified the Jackie style and brought a breath of sleek modernity to the White House after the somewhat frumpy fussiness of previous first lady Bess Truman. Released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Kennedy's "emergence" as a style icon, the book presents an eclectic selection of suits, evening dresses, daywear, and accessories from the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum collection. Divided into cities where each item was first worn, the gowns, suits, and dresses are first presented alone in a full-page color photo. Each is then accompanied by various photos of Jackie wearing the item and detailed design notes, history, and anecdotes behind the outfit.

These photos give a wonderful context to the clothes, and it's clear that Jackie's carriage and persona injected life into these garments--which sometimes appear markedly different from what one might deduce as each item's "personality" when simply viewing it alone. For example, a pale cream embroidered silk Givenchy evening gown looks dull and somewhat dowdy when seen alone, but the accompanying photograph of Jackie wearing it while cuddling a newborn John Kennedy Jr. transforms the dress into something feminine and timeless. Or a very simple, innocently pretty pink shantung evening gown by Guy Douvier becomes arrestingly sexy when she wears it with nothing but white gloves and a Palm Beach tan. Contextualizing and interpreting Kennedy's style is an important part of this book. Featured are essays on Jackie and her effect on the world of style by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Kennedy friend Rachel Lambert Mellon, and the book's author and Vogue editor at large, Hamish Bowles. Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years accompanies an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. --Marisa Lencioni, Amazon.co.uk

About the Author:

Hamish Bowles is European Editor-at-Large, Vogue, and Curator of the exhibition, "Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years." Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. is a Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and author of books including A Thousand Days, a study of the Kennedy White House. He was an aide in the Kennedy White House. Rachael Mellon???

About this edition

• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0870999826
• ISBN 13: 9780870999826
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 198