While covering a dinner earlier this month at the State Department in honor of the 2009 Kennedy Center Honorees, I had the rare experience of coming face-to-face with the progeny of one of my personal style icons.
Channeling her mother's pared down elegance and innate sense of propriety, Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of first lady of fashion Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, was dressed in a simple black cocktail dress, a sleeveless design showcasing her toned arms belying her fifty plus years.
Flanked by her husband, Ed Schlossberg, Ms. Kennedy stood alone, removed from the bustle of the crowd, ever her mother's daughter, I mused.
Sensing this was the perfect chance to grab my piece of history, I approached her and asked a rather mundane question for the personalities column I write for The Washington Times.
She humored me, of course, and then my eyes caught a glimpse of Jackie lore that only true Jackie admirers would recognize.
On the bust-line of her little black number, Ms. Kennedy donned the "sunburst pin," an antique piece her mother was said to have purchased from a dealer in London for a reported $100,000 many decades ago.
While First Lady, the-then Mrs. Kennedy wore the diamond brooch on gowns and as a hair pin at some of Camelot's most illustrious state dinners.
Photo from www.american-presidents.org.
The piece was in many ways similar to its owner: gloriously radiant and regal, but maintaining a mystery and elusiveness.
It's been copied by QVC's Jacqueline Kennedy Collection of fashion jewelry so a new generation of Jackie wanna bees (like moi) can try to pull off wearing a knock off with Jackie's queenly elan.
A reproduction of the pin.
In the mid-1990s, not long after Mrs. Onassis passed on, Caroline and her brother, the late John, Jr., put many Kennedy family favorites up for auction, including their mother's ubiquitous three stranded-pearl necklace and their father's golf clubs, but for reasons only known to mother and daughter, the "sunburst" piece survived the cut.
The ever press-shy Ms. Kennedy, when asked about the brooch, responded cautiously, "my mother gave it to me," thus, bringing my "interview" and rendezvous with Jackie's "crown jewel" to a close.
Mrs. O would be proud to know that her daughter wears it well.
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I THINK IT IS BEAUTIFUL THAT SHE HAS A PIECE OF JEWELRY GIVEN TO HER BY HER MOTHER; AND EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL THAT SHE WANTS TO WEAR IT AND GIVE HER MOTHER HONOR IN DEATH.
CAROLINE'S FATHER WAS SHOT IN THE HEAD AND HAD HIS BRAINS BLOWN OUT IN PUBLIC AND ON HER MOTHER'S SUIT! SHE WAS A CHILD WHEN THAT HAPPENED. THEN HER STEP FATHER DIED. HER UNCLE BOBBY WAS SHOT IN THE HEAD, TOO! THEN HER MOTHER GOT CANCER AND DIED, AND HER ONLY SIBLING DIED.
I remember after that that there were many reproductions made for anyone that wanted dolphin hoop earrings just like Jackie O.
I was in high school and couldn't afford a pair of gold hoop earrings.
Now I try to find them and can't find them anywhere. Only the modern style of dolphins. I'm sure there must be a pair for sale in used or vintage jewelry shops but I can't find any. I'm sure tens of thousands were reproduced and sold. It was a style fad and everyone was buying and wearing them.
Where are they now? I just want one pair.
The repo's are very beautidully done and I too have looked at antique shops, flea markets etc. and have never seen a pair--I just think people who have them aren't giving them up.
I can't believe there were so few. You could buy them everywhere. May Co. had them in their jewelry dept.
Perhaps those people selling them just don't know they are knock-offs of Jackie O's dolphin hoops from Aristotle.
Are you a swimmer? Marine Biologist?
I just like the style of the ancient greek dolphins as opposed to the modern style.
I keep my eye out but doing an internet search is near impossible as all of the hoops that show up are the modern style, not Jackie O's ancient greek dolphin hoops.
I didn't see them among the items when her jewelry was auctioned. I've tried to find the article but this was way back when Aristole proposed. I think they were pictured in a print in Life magazine or something. That's what set off the mania to own a pair and when the knock-offs started to appear. But I can't even find a copy of the magazine as I don't know what year or month.
NO ONE does it better than jackie kennedy did. NO ONE. never a misstep. true class and grace. not saying she was perfect, but she presented perfectly. what a lady.
My mother was Jack's nurse when he was at NY Hosp. and received Last Rites. I could tell you stories...
but look at jackie, almost 50 year on, and she is still in style, that my friends is a fashion Icon. Jackie is to fashion what Mozart was to music.
Do you mean "progeny"?
I'm with you on the White House years, although I'd like to see a real admirer come to grips with her subsequent mistakes. In other words, how could some with such "timeless" taste and "elegance" go on to the huge hair of the later '60s? Timeless? No . . .