The dress worn by

Jacqueline Bouvier Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A po ...

for her wedding to John F. Kennedy in 1953 is one of the best-remembered bridal gowns of all time. The gown was the creation of fashion designer Ann Lowe, who was not credited as the designer at the time of the Bouvier-Kennedy wedding.

Design

Janet Lee Bouvier, Jacqueline's mother, hired Lowe to design and make the entire bridal party's outfits. Lowe had made Bouvier's dress for her wedding to Hugh Auchincloss. The bridal gown, of ivory-colored silk

taffeta Taffeta (archaically spelled taffety or taffata) is a crisp, smooth, plain woven fabric made from silk, cuprammonium rayons, acetate, and polyester. The word is Persian (تافته) in origin and means "twisted woven". As clothing, it is used i ...

, featured a portrait neckline and huge round skirt. The skirt featured interwoven tucking bands and tiny wax flowers. Jacqueline Bouvier's lace veil had belonged to her grandmother; a lace-and-orange-blossom

tiara A tiara (from la, tiara, from grc, τιάρα) is a jeweled head ornament. Its origins date back to ancient Greece and Rome. In the late 18th century, the tiara came into fashion in Europe as a prestigious piece of jewelry to be worn by women ...

tied the veil to her hair. Her bridal bouquet was made of white and pink

gardenias ''Gardenia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the coffee family, Rubiaceae, native to the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, Madagascar and Pacific Islands, and Australia. The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus and John Ellis aft ...

and

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

. She wore little jewelry with the dress, but what she did wear had personal significance. The single-strand

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

necklace was a family heirloom; she also wore a

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

pin from her parents and diamond bracelet from her groom, John F. Kennedy. A flood in Lowe's Lexington Avenue workshop 10 days before the wedding ruined the bride's gown and nine of the bridal party's dresses. Ann Lowe and her staff worked through eight days (the original time was eight weeks) to reconstruct the gowns and ensure they were delivered on time. Instead of an estimated $700 profit, Lowe lost $2,200 on the project.

Reception

The dress was crafted in a very traditional design (particularly the skirt) per the wishes of the Kennedy family, and it won worldwide acclaim. However, Jacqueline had wanted a simple dress with firm lines to complement her tall, slim figure. She later told friends privately that she did not like the dress's portrait neckline because she felt it emphasized her small bust. She also said that the skirt looked "like a lampshade". The ''New York Times'' coverage of the wedding described Jacqueline's wedding attire in detail, referring to the gown as "a gown of ivory silk taffeta, made with a fitted bodice embellished with interwoven bands of tucking, finished with a portrait neckline, and a bouffant skirt." However, the ''Times'' did not name the gown's designer, Ann Lowe. By the mid-1960s, however, Lowe was publicly acknowledged as the designer of the gown.

References

{{Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 1950s fashion Wedding dresses Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Design

Reception

See also

References