How to Dress Like Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy This Autumn
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy has been on mood boards for years, but 2026 gave her a second career. FX's Love Story aired in February, after months of people...
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy has been on mood boards for years, but 2026 gave her a second career. FX's Love Story aired in February, after months of people arguing online about whether the costumes looked right, and she has been the reference point for anything plain and well cut ever since.
Look through the photographs, though, and most of what she wore is cold-weather clothing. A coat, a knit, a skirt, boots. October is a better month to borrow from her than June ever was. She had worked in publicity at Calvin Klein, and it shows in how little is going on in any one outfit, so the shapes are plain enough to exist at every price. Four of those outfits are below, each with the closest pieces we could find on the high street.
Her palette
Six colours cover the four outfits below, give or take a gold clutch.
Black
#111111
Camel
#C19A6B
White
#FFFFFF
Mid grey
#8A8D8F
Denim blue
#4A6A8A
Chestnut brown
#6B3A2A
The camel skirt and black knit
A camel skirt, a black knit and brown boots
This is the pavement outside the couple's Tribeca building, on the day John F. Kennedy Jr. asked the press to give his new wife some room. She is in a fine black long-sleeved knit, a camel skirt cut straight to just below the knee, and a structured black shoulder bag, with her hair pulled back. The skirt is the only colour in the outfit, so it gets all the attention. If a pencil skirt feels too office for you, look further down. The boots are a glossy chestnut brown with a heel, and I think they are why the outfit doesn't look like a uniform.
Shop camel and beige skirts
The black coat with jeans and loafers
The grey dress with knee-high boots
The white shirt and black maxi skirt
The basics the four outfits share
The four outfits lean on the same few basics. These are the ones without a rail above.
How to make her wardrobe yours
Four ways to borrow it without copying it
Pick one colour and keep the rest dark
Each outfit has a single piece that is not black: the camel skirt, the blue jeans, the grey dress, the white shirt. Choose your own. Green works. So does burgundy.
Change the shoes first
Brown boots under the camel skirt, loafers with the flares, black boots with the grey dress. The clothes barely differ from photo to photo, and the footwear is how you tell the outfits apart.
Stop at two accessories
Headband and sunglasses by day, a clutch at the Whitney. If you want a third, make it something she would never have worn. A brooch, or a loud sock under the cropped flares.
Skip the exact replica
The complaints about the Love Story costumes were a fair warning. A piece-for-piece copy of a famous outfit looks like fancy dress, however good the fabric is. Take the proportions and keep your own haircut.
You don't have to do this all at once. Start with whichever of the four is closest to what you already wear on a cold Tuesday, and add the next piece once the first has earned its place. The rails on this page are live searches, so they change as stock does.