September is one of the most popular months for weddings, and apparently that goes for wedding dress auctions as well.
A Valentino dress owned by Jacqueline Kennedy and worn to her wedding to Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis sold for more than three times its pre-sale estimate at Bonhams’ “Classic Luxury: Icons of Style” auction. The last bid was $24,320 in the sale, which took place from September 16 to 26.
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Five years after the murder of her first husband, John, 35This US President Kennedy married Onassis on the private island of Skorpios, which he owns in the Aegean Sea. The two had known each other for several years and had become “very friendly” on Onassis’s yacht, “so friendly, in fact, that fellow holidaymaker Ted Kenny left in some anger,” according to a 1968 WWD report. The 325-foot yacht was named “Christina O” for her daughter and was converted from a Canadian destroyer escort ship into a $3 million, 10-bedroom Jet Set carrier that required a crew of 50.
Kennedy’s mother, Janet Auchincloss, announced her daughter’s plans to marry a second time within a week of the wedding. WWD once said that their union was frowned upon by many Americans, especially those who thought she “should remain the all-white widow of a martyred president.”
The dress was gifted to Bonhams by a private couple who were friends with Onassis and Onassis Kennedy on the tycoon’s private yacht. In October 1968, WWD reported that Kennedy Onassis wore a beige chiffon and lace dress to the wedding of Bunny Mellon’s daughter Eliza Lloyd and Viscount Moore; where Caroline Kennedy was a flower girl and John F. Kennedy Jr. He was also a page writer. . The Italian designer made a new version of the same dress for the wedding in Greece.
According to WWD, Onassis presented Kennedy with diamond and ruby pendant earrings from Van Cleef & Arpels in 1968; these were the same earrings that Onassis’s longtime girlfriend, Maria Callas, had worn a month earlier.
Kennedy’s wedding to billionaire Onassis elevated her millionaire status and placed her among friends Bunny Mellon and Betsy Whitney, WWD reported in 1968. The former First Lady was also said to have been “stuck on a dollar before she met Onassis.” According to WWD’s obituary.
Marissa Speer, Bonhams’ sales manager for bags and fashion for the U.S., called the sale, which included one of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s tuxedos, a “rare privilege.” He added: “The Kennedys are undoubtedly one of the most prominent families in modern American history. Jacqueline Kennedy’s 1968 couture ensemble is not only an important piece of fashion history, marking the emergence of one of the most stylish women in the world, it is also a legacy in the history of Maison Valentino.” It also displays an important design.”
As for final tallies of items worn by JFK Jr., a Calvin Klein tuxedo sold for $2,560, a Calvin Klein suit and black tie sold for $2,560, and a circa 1990 Giorgio Armani coat sold for $10,240.
Interestingly, Kennedy’s first wedding dress (an elaborate Anne Lowe ball gown with a fitted bodice that required 50 yards of fabric) was also in the news this week. Sony’s Tristar will highlight how largely unheralded Black designer Lowe designed this historic wedding dress in the feature film “The Dress.” The biopic will be based on historical fiction by Piper Huguley book “By His Own Design.”
Serena Williams and two-time Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter will produce the film, and Ruth E. Carter will handle costume designs.
Katya Roelse, a potential design consultant for the feature film who created a replica of Lowe’s wedding dress for an exhibition at the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library last fall, explained the differences between Kennedy’s two wedding dresses. At their first wedding in 1953, Kennedy’s soon-to-be father-in-law, Joe, “liked the optics of an American designer like Ann Lowe, JFK wanted something more traditional, and so did his mother.” [Janet Auchincloss] and stepfather [Hugh Auchincloss] I didn’t want to pay too much,” Roelse said. “Ann Lowe pulled it all off masterfully and made a dress that suited her and showed off her skills, but ultimately Jackie didn’t like it. “He was trying to please everyone.”
Roelse described Kennedy’s marriage to Onassis as “an act of independence” and a sign that she “wanted what he wanted: protection and comfort, despite how unpopular he made her.”
She added: “This makes me think she was wearing Valentino because it showed her maturity in pleasing herself and taking a bit of a risk by wearing an unconventional two-piece suit as her ‘dress’ from a not-so-well-known designer.”
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 1960s Style File from the Archives [PHOTOS]
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Launch Gallery: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 1960s Style File from the Archives [PHOTOS]
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