A white button-down shirt paired with denim isn’t exactly revolutionary. But thanks to the renewed fascination with style icon Carolyn Bessette Kennedy — a button-down-shirt devotee — it feels entirely of the moment.
The style of the fashion publicist turned American royalty, when she married ’90s “it” man John F. Kennedy Jr., could be described in just a few words: neutral, tailored, intentional and timeless. That’s always been true. But now, as a younger generation is discovering her through bingeing the FX/Hulu hit series Love Story, her looks are serving as a source of inspiration — and a refreshing reset in an era defined by hyper-speed microtrends and algorithm-driven aesthetics.
Open most any social media platform, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. CBK styleboards are all over Pinterest, while TikTok’s FYP is littered with re-creations of her notable looks, from brown corduroy pants and a staple wool coat to a slinky slip dress.
As a result, Bessette Kennedy is being seen as the kind of influencer the internet was built to adore, even though she lived and died before the term was coined. Social media has attempted to make her style digestible and replicable. But fashion experts argue her true appeal is much harder to bottle, suggesting that CBK’s trendiest quality is that she was anti-trend to begin with.
The CBK effect
The cycle isn’t anything new: a highly anticipated show comes out, becomes an instant hit and people begin to obsess over every aspect of it — including the fashion. “Culture romanticizes the style, aesthetic and essence of a character or a figure portrayed in film or TV. It’s almost inevitable,” Alexan Ashcraft, founder of Trends of the Times, tells Yahoo. “And with this new series coming out about two already well-known figures who were also known for their style, it’s no exception.”
It’s not the first time that Bessette Kennedy’s aesthetic has garnered such attention. Even before her untimely death in 1999, onlookers adored what she wore and how she wore it. The difference between then and now, nearly 30 years after her death, is the internet and its impact on trends.
Rather than thumbing through magazines and pulling inspiration from celebrity street photos or even a stylized shoot, today’s fashion environment is broken down into how-to’s with an algorithm that rewards concise formats. Hence, the influx of “CBK starter packs” that simplify Bessette Kennedy’s style into five or 10 must-have items, like a slouchy tote bag, tortoise headband, oval sunglasses and loafers. Not to mention the shoppable links to the products mentioned, which makes the style a simple copy-and-paste formula. And for some, it doesn’t stop at buying the items. They post their own versions, adding to the ever-growing stream.
“Our idea of worth and value has become attached to numbers and visibility on social platforms,” says Ashcraft. “The pressure to keep up and to perform for the algorithm is constantly building, which leads many of us, whether we intend to or not, to fall into performance, into conforming and into chasing trends. We end up buying into every new micro trend to keep up and to remain relevant.”
By those standards, wearing a pair of bootcut jeans with a blazer and a bandana would make you a CBK disciple. But that very cycle of nominating a trending style, replicating it and monetizing off of it is exactly what Bessette Kennedy seemed uninterested in participating in.
Fashion content creator and writer Hetal Patel has even pushed back against how this influencer-style content has reduced CBK’s style to basics.
“I don’t want people going to Zara and buying a white shirt because, ‘Oh, it’s the CBK effect,’” Patel tells Yahoo. “She wore a white shirt, but she wore it in so many different ways. Her whole point was, this is a lifestyle. It’s not just a trend.”
The reasons for its appeal
Bessette Kennedy was a very private person who rarely gave interviews, which added to her allure. Instead, she communicated with the outside world mostly through her clothes, Sunita Kumar Nair, who wrote CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion and consulted on the show, told the AP.
But what made her compelling wasn’t the individual pieces — the slip dresses, the tailored coats and the simple accessories. It was the effortlessness behind each of her looks.
“Carolyn wasn’t performing. Her clothes reflected her personal style and made sense for real life,” says Ashcraft. “In a fast-fashion, digital age where people are desperate to fit in and stay relevant, a style that embodies ease, timelessness and confidence becomes irresistibly attractive.” That natural ease makes it harder to replicate.
Internet algorithms can circulate images of the loafers and the tailored trousers, but they can’t manufacture the essence of a woman who wasn’t dressing for approval in the first place. And yet, in a culture where trend cycles come and go at lightning speed, her timeless style feels newly resonant. “People are feeling burnt out by the system we’ve been in and possibly feeling lost. They’re craving authenticity to not feel behind or feel the need to keep up all the time,” Ashcraft says.
Minimalism in the ’90s may have followed the excess of the ’80s, but today the pendulum swing feels heavier: Clothes are more disposable, trends turn over quickly and the environmental consequences of all that overconsumption are hard to ignore. In that landscape, Bessette Kennedy’s repeatable uniform reads less like nostalgia and more like restraint.
Still, Patel argues that the takeaway isn’t mimicry. “You don’t need to wear what she wore to embody what she stood for,” she says. “You can adopt the principles of intentionality, authenticity and sustainability without copying the uniform. Find your personal style and stick to it.”
Bessette Kennedy’s wardrobe is simple enough to shop, but the self-possession behind it isn’t something you can add to cart. And maybe that gap between the outfit and the attitude is part of why the fascination around her — and her style — lingers decades later.