13 Jackie Kennedy Outfit Essentials to Wear Now

If there’s one thing Jackie popularized, it’s a shift dress. She made the silhouette a quintessential one for first ladies, with Michelle Obama and French First Lady Brigitte Macron taking inspiration from the style many years later.

Jackie once famously said “Pearls are always appropriate”—and she was most certainly right. A fan of the classic gem, she was seen wearing them on many formal outings as the first lady, and even wore two strings of pearls on the cover of Life Magazine in 1959.

Although gloves became less popular as the prevailing aesthetic in the ’60s transitioned from conservative classy to hippie chic, gloves were one of Jackie’s favorite accessories. She loved to pair her gowns with long arm length white gloves. Although the style is retro, gloves are starting to make a comeback with stars like Sydney Sweeney and Blake Lively fashioning the garment on the red carpet.

Trench coats were another ’60s fashion staple that Jackie embraced—both during her White House years, and long after. She was photographed wearing trench coats on her trips to Paris in the late ’60s and during outings in New York City in the ’70s, she’d usually style them with dresses or in a trouser and turtleneck combo.

It’s no secret that Jackie was inspired by the European way of life, especially when it came to style. Capri pants, named after the island, were not just favored by Italians but by Jackie as well. She often wore them during the trips she took to Italy and Greece while she was married to shipping tycoon, Aristotle Onassis.

Jackie was not only a wearer of Jack Rogers sandals, she’s the reason they even exist. After a trip in Capri, Jackie brought back a sandal with whipstitched detailing and asked a cobbler in Palm Beach to replicate them. Soon enough, every member of her inner circle—and crowds of preppy women in America—owned a pair.

During her term as First Lady, Jackie favored a uniform and clean look. To achieve that, she was a big fan of dress suits and matching sets like the Chez Ninon two-piece outfit that she wore for the televised tour of the White House.

During her tenure as First Lady, Jackie favored a quarter-length sleeve. Later on, in the ’70s, she would also wear simple quarter length sleeved tops which created a look that’s effortless yet classic.

Lilly Pullitzer’s dresses have been a principle part of a preppy wardrobe for nearly 60 years. However Jackie, Lilly’s former classmatewas one of the first women to popularize the brand when she wore a Lilly Puliitzer dress for Life Magazine.

Loafers went well with Kennedy’s classic northeastern style and she would often wear a pair with dresses. Her daughter-in-law, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, followed suit and would incorporate loafers into her style as well.

A beautiful pair of sunnies are the perfect addition to a chic look—but if you want to wear them like Kennedy, big lenses and thick frames are the way to go. She loved completing her looks with a pair of statement shades.

A Jackie-inspired ensemble would not be complete without a scarf. Many of her looks from the ’70s showed her styling scarves around her head. She was also seen wearing scarves well into the last few years of her life as well.