Jacqueline Kennedy was one of the most famous first ladies the United States has ever known. One of the reasons why she has been known as such is because the Kennedys were the first presidents to be aired on national television. Jackie made a lasting impression on Americans during their time in the White House. She invited cameras into the White House for a tour, the first of its kind. She was known for her beauty, poise, and charmed leaders across the world.

For fashion, Jackie led the American culture towards a more progressive and trendsetting. Perhaps Jackie’s most iconic look during her lifetime was her “pink Chanel suit.” Although the suit looks exactly like a Chanel watermelon suit, it was American made by a high end replica designer, Chez Ninon. The designer had specifically made the suit for her in 1961 It was made of wool with a matching pillbox hat with navy blue accents. [1]

Jackie had been photographed wearing the suit more than just on the infamous date in November. At least half a dozen times she was recorded wearing the suit. It was a personal favorite for John, as he actually requested that she wear the suit in Dallas. It was the suit that she wore when John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot. The suit is famous because she was sitting next to her husband when he was assassinated next to her.

For the duration of the day preceding the events, at Parkland Hospital, swearing in Lyndon B Johnson, and returning to the White House receiving her husband’s body, Jackie Kennedy continued to wear her pink suit with visible blood stains. At the hospital, those close to the first lady asked her to change out of the outfit but she refused and replied “oh, no… I want them to see what they have done to Jack.”[2]

Jackie never had the suit cleaned. In fact, in 1964 she sent it in a box with a note written herself that reads “Jackie’s suit and bag- worn November 22nd, 1963.” The pillbox that matched the suit was not with the rest of the outfit and its location is unknown. In 2003, Caroline, the daughter of John and Jackie, donated the suit to the people of the United States. Today, the suit remains in the National Archives collection in Maryland, where it hasn’t been seen by the public in more than 50 years and is maintained in a temperature controlled room. The suit will continue to remain unseen for generations to come, approximately 100 years since Caroline gave it to the United States’ people. The US will not release the suit to be on display to the public for this length of time for fear of popularizing the assassination itself.[3]

Now there are reproductions of the suit that can be seen every Halloween or in movies about the lives of the Kennedys. Although few people have actually seen the suit stained with blood of John F Kennedy since Jackie finally took it off, it is an iconic look that will forever be burned into the images of Americans minds on a day that lives in infamy.

[1] Randi Kaye, “50 Years Later, Jackie Kennedy’s Pink Suit Locked Away From View,” November 21, 2013, CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/us/jacqueline-kennedy-pink-suit/index.html
[2] Aleksandra Andonovska, “Jackie Kennedy Wore Her Blood Spattered Pink Chanel Suit for the Rest of the Day After JFK’s Assassination,” The Vintage News, October 25, 2016, http://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/25/i-want-them-to-see-what-they-have-done-to-jack-jackie-kennedy-wore-her-blood-splattered-pink-chanel-suit-for-the-rest-of-the-day-after-jfks-assassination-2/
[3] Randi Kaye, “50 Years Later, Jackie Kennedy’s Pink Suit Locked Away From View,” November 21, 2013, CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/us/jacqueline-kennedy-pink-suit/index.html

These days the extramarital activities of John F. Kennedy are common knowledge to most, but back in the Sixties the president and his wife represented the perfect family. They were the American royal family in a way, an image that was further cemented by JFK’s assassination and Jackie Kennedy’s careful preservation of his image. Images of President Kennedy playing with his children in the White House and stories about about him requesting extra bedtime stories to read to his children further inspired Americans to idolize the Kennedy brand.¹  He even had Jackie put rubber ducks in his bathroom so he could play with his son John in the bath. Images and stories like this are what drew many Americans to JFK, Americans like Caitlin Flanagan who wrote in her article in The Independent “And it was right then—with the description of the rubber ducks, and the way they evoked the closeness of father and son, the intimacy of husband and wife, and the essential nature of married life—that I got back together with John Kennedy.”²

But for as intimate and loving as the Kennedy family outwardly appeared to Americans at the time, its not the “perfect American family.” Eventually the American public learned of JFK’s myriad affairs, be it from the deposition of Judith Exner, the recollections of former White House intern Mimi Alford, or the many other women who rendezvoused with the president. The shattering illusion caused anger among some former Kennedy fans and dismissal from others as they realized their trust in the image of JFK was being attacked.  Kennedy’s betrayal is most shocking in his affair with Mimi Alford, a 19 year old intern with whom he had sex in Jackie’s bedroom and took baths in that same bathroom with the rubber ducks. Flanagan juxtaposes this affair with the Jackie Kennedy Historic Conversations tapes, stating “the details of this affair reveal that no matter what Jackie may have believed about the inviolability of her refuge—the “hermetically sealed” nature of the compartment John shared with her alone—not one inch of it was sacred to her husband. Not the bedrooms, not the bathrooms. Not even the rubber ducks.”³ This man that “evoked the intimacy of husband and wife” betrayed that intimacy by chasing after every woman that he could.

It is confusing then, that the women JFK slept with have received so much blame and abuse while the perpetrator has received mostly atta-boys. Mimi Alford was apparently hated by other women working in the White House, both because of her relationship with the President and the troubles that relationship brought to the White House staff.⁴ Meanwhile, Judith Exner was “pilloried by a public furious at learning that at least one wing of Camelot had more in common with the Playboy Club,” as Patt Morrison from the LA Times puts it.⁵ But the only person who should be blamed for wanton womanizing is the womanizer himself, not the women he took advantage of thanks to his position as President and a pop icon. Hopefully the carefully crafted image of the family man will gradually fade from the American public’s mind, and they will be able to see him  as he was: the real President Kennedy.

 

1.Flanagan, Caitlin. “Jackie and the Girls.” The Atlantic. February 19, 2014. Accessed April 05, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/jackie-and-the-girls/309000/.
2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Sorkin, Amy Davidson. “Mimi and the President.” The New Yorker. June 19, 2017. Accessed April 05, 2018. https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/mimi-and-the-president.

5. Morrison, Patt. “50 Years Later, JFK Girlfriend Judith Campbell Exner Deserves an Image Makeover.” Los Angeles Times. November 21, 2013. Accessed April 05, 2018. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/21/news/la-ol-jfks-lover-50-years-on-20131121.