Overview
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis is the ultimate American fashion icon. Jay Mulvaney, author of Kennedy Weddings, celebrates her unique style in this lavishly illustrated book.
Jackie: The Clothes of Camelot is a richly illustrated history of those magical years when the Kennedys captivated a nation and the world. Her glamour was electric, her style imaginative, and the effect was brilliant. Jacqueline Kennedy's fashions from the White House years, over two hundred outfits, are illustrated with three hundred photographs, in both black and white and color, many previously unpublished or rarely seen. Also included are photographs of jewelry and accessories as well as memorabilia, all exploring the continuing impact of Jackie's fashion sensibility on our culture.
The range of illustrations and text is broad, including:
Early Fashion Influences The Inauguration Ensembles Gowns for State Events The Wardrobe for State Visits Abroad Private Living and Casual Wear French Designers: Haute Couture in the White House November 1963
Mrs. Onassis and the Post-Camelot Years
JACKIE: The Clothes of Camelot is a striking portrait of an unforgettable fashion legend.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewJacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis entranced not just Americans but people around the world with her artistic and elegant sense of style. Featuring more than 300 photographs, Jay Mulvaney's Jackie: The Clothes of Camelot celebrates Jackie's clean and simple look.
The book is divided into sections, including "Early Fashion Influences," "Gowns for State Events," and "Mrs. Onassis and the Post-Camelot Years." It not only chronicles Jackie's evolving flair for fashion; Jackie: The Clothes of Camelot includes anecdotes from her daughter, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg; designer Oleg Cassini; and her White House chief of staff and social secretary, Letitia Baldrige, among others, who provide the personal and political context behind each photo.
Accompanying a photograph of Jackie at a formal dinner at the Schonbrunn Palace marking the Vienna Summit, for example, is an intriguing anecdote about Jackie's encounter with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. Not knowing what to discuss with him, she decided on the innocuous subject of dogs and revealed that she loved Russian breeds. When Khrushchev sent her a dog as a gift, President Kennedy was furious, believing that Jackie had allowed the Soviets to gain a political advantage.
The book also documents Jackie's close relationship with her sister, Lee Radziwill, who was her biggest fashion rival. At one point, Jackie writes to her Parisian clothing scout, Letizia Mowinckel, "What I really appreciate most of all is you letting me know before Lee about the treasures. Please always do that -- now that she knows you are my 'scout,' she is slipping in there before me. So this fall, do let me know about the prettiest things first." No fashionista is always perfect, however, and Mulvaney includes some of Jackie's rare mistakes.
As the last page of Jackie: The Clothes of Camelot is turned, it is indisputable that Jackie will forever remain a fashion icon. (Soozan Baxter)