When a woman dies twice - The Life & Style of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy

Am I late to this trend? Yes. Does that really matter? No. Really need to keep telling myself that it’s okay to not be right on the forefront of trends.

Premiering in February 2026, Love Story - John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette followed the relationship & marriage of the aforementioned couple across nine episodes. Created by FX, it became their most watched show across both Hulu and Disney+, surpassing 65 million streamed hours. From there, thousands of people were suddenly exposed to the world, and style, of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy.

Now, this post isn’t really about their relationship, or their deaths. This post is about Carolyn’s life and subsequent legacy.

Born in 1966, Carolyn Bessette was raised in Connecticut. Studying elementary education as Boston University’s School of Education, Bessette began working at Calvin Klein after graduating. Starting as a sales assistant, Bessette was brought to New York by a senior executive to work with the brand’s private clients, including Diane Sawyer and Annette Bening. During her seven years at Calvin Klein, Bessette grew from sales, to PR, to director of show production.

Bessette met John F. Kennedy Jr., the son of JFK and Jackie Kennedy-Onassis in the early 1990s. By 1996, they were married in a private ceremony in Georgia. As the press pervaded their relationship, magazines began to focus on her fashion choices, relationship and private lives. Soon, coverage shifted away from Bessette-Kennedy’s career, and just to what she was wearing, and in response, Bessette-Kennedy retreated from public life. She never gave any interviews while married to JFK Jr., and rarely put herself out there as the ‘doting wife of a Kennedy’ as the media expected her to be.

Her style was praised at the time, with her custom wedding dress inspiring knockoffs and being nominated for the Best Female Personal Style at the 1996 Vogue Fashion Awards. It was sleek, clean and timeless, combining staples and luxury pieces such as Prada and Yohji Yamamoto.

In July 1999, Bessette-Kennedy, JFK Jr. and Carolyn’s sister Lauren lost their lives in a plane crash piloted by JFK Jr. himself, all three died on impact. Carolyn was 33 at the time.

When Love Story debuted in February 2026, TikTok exploded with fans of the show, posting about their new style inspiration. Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy became ‘CBK’, with creators trying to recreate her style or find the specific brands/accessories she wore. Tortoise shell headbands, oval sunglasses, plain white tanks, black turtlenecks all became part of new OOTDs & ‘CBK style inspo’ posts, with some people copying the look one for one.

Posts showcasing the exact products CBK would use went viral, as fans found the exact New York pharmacy she bought her hair accessories from and did the same. Even some of the original brands featured in CBK’s style experienced an increase in sales by up to 2,700% as people went to buy the exact same items. #CBKstyleinspo, #CBK aesthetic, #CBKcore, #CBKcoded, CBK became a look, not a person anymore. British Vogue stated that it was now a ‘CBK Spring’, what does that even mean?

Here’s my problem with this, (get ready, I have an ~opinion~). In my mind, many women, especially those in the public sphere and those that die in unfortunate circumstance, die twice. The first is her physical death. The second is the death of her character. Once a woman dies, the media, peers and society can completely reduce, accuse and rewrite her life essentially as they please.

I first came across this idea while watching a documentary about the murder of Nora Dalmasso. As the police were trying to identify her killer, the media created a rumour mill that completely destroyed Dalmasso character, ruined her family and tried to blame her for her own murder. Dalmasso’s widow once said “They killed her 1,000 times with a 1,000 different tales.”

This can apply to CBK in a similar way. After her death and after the FX series, CBK’s life has been reduced to basically 5 fashion items and a relationship with JFK Jr. People have so little interest in what made CBK so good at tailoring her style that they just think replicating it is enough. Or just wearing what she wore will give them that same ‘iconic style’ status. And plus, if everyone goes out to buy and wear the same thing, inspired by Love Story and the TikTok trends, isn’t it antithetical to the fact that CBK’s was individual and unique?

What made Bessette-Kennedy so ‘stylish’ was her curation. Her wardrobe was a combination of high and low end pieces, she combined international and local brands. She used New York City as a resource, finding staple pieces across many local businesses. Her headbands were from a local pharmacy, her perfume was from a street vendor. She was a serial outfit repeater, the same shoes, bags, jewellery, clothing over and over. She made it work with what she had, shopping smart to ensure that she had quality pieces to last forever and go with everything.

Good style is not a ‘cheat code’ to a better life, you can’t manifest a better life through clothing, you need to build it from the ground up. And that process is slow and difficult, CBK didn’t build her wardrobe overnight. She lived in her clothing, she didn’t just buy it.

What I witnessed with the ‘CBK trend’ was the essence of a woman, an entire person, reduced to a set of fashion buzzwords, clothing items and a monetisable formula to recreate her style. Many think that wearing what CBK did is a gateway to becoming like her and viewed in the same way, not realising that the clothing doesn’t make the woman, the lifestyle & thought behind it does.

Yes, CBK died in 1999. But in the years after, especially after the release of Love Story, CBK has died again. She will be forever trapped in the 90s, trapped in the few public photos available. Who she was, has been killed and replaced with a style muse, barely understood and superficially replicated. Similar thing with Marilyn Monroe, and with Amy Winehouse. CBK was determinedly private and quiet, she didn’t want to be plastered everywhere. And here we are, with people even going out to buy her skincare routine, step for step.

To many people, she is not a person anymore, she is an aesthetic. And calling her CBK doesn’t help. Her name was Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy.