Continuing our look at previous First Ladies and their off-duty wardrobes, we now turn to Jacqueline Kennedy, First Lady from 1961 to 1963.
During their short tenure at White House, the Kennedys established a set routine for their vacations: summers were spent at the family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts; during September, there was a visit to Newport, Rhode Island (where Mrs. K’s mother and stepfather lived); and Easter week was spent at the President’s family’s house in Palm Beach, Florida. Mrs. Kennedy also took private visits to London, Greece, and the Amalfi Coast in Italy.
For each of these off-duty times, Mrs. Kennedy would continue to wear her style of streamlined silhouettes, and even during her casual family time she stayed in a seasonal palette. Writes Jay Mulvaney in Jackie: The Clothes of Camelot: "She would stick to browns and grays during the winter, but in spring her choices would blossom—pink, reds, yellows, and blues."
Image via John F. Kennedy Library / Public Domain
In both of these photos of Mrs. K, with her family at Hyannis Port, she is wearing a soft pink shift dress. One dress is in a more casual check befitting the low-key nature of the summer visit at the beach. The second dress -- what can be seen of it thanks to all the Kennedy dogs -- shows another simple, sleeveless frock with an arresting detail of the same material at the neckline.
Image via John F. Kennedy Library / Public Domain
Shift dresses were a radical move away from both the fitted hourglass shape of the 1950s and the fitted sheath dresses of the early 1960s. French designer Hubert Givenchy started the trend with his design of the sack dress in 1957. Over the next several years, the sack dress turned into a more playful dress that fell straight from the shoulders to the hem, its only shaping—if any—coming from two bust darts. The shift was meant to skim the body. It was most often sleeveless and its more youthful silhouette fit the mood of the 1960s.
A variation on the shift dress was the trapeze dress, which Mrs. Kennedy is seen wearing walking on the beach in Palm Beach. We love the bold graphic print of this trapeze dress, which still looks very current today. And, with its silhouette bringing more movement to the hemline, it is a perfect dress to wear for summer days walking or dancing.
Although Mrs. Kennedy is walking barefoot in this photo, we note that she usually wore Jack Rogers sandals while on vacation. One style, still available today, is nicknamed the “Palm Beach” when the First Lady wore the flat whip-stitched thong sandals to a Good Friday church service there. Some debate the origin of this sandal—Steve Bonnano versus Jack Rogers—but regardless the First Lady had these sandals in a variety of colors and styles, mixing them with shift dresses or Capri pants while enjoying her off-duty time.
Post by Mrs. C / Marcia Froelke Coburn
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 11:38 AM 
