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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Pink Suit by Nicole Mary Kelby (view source)
Revision as of 13:56, 18 May 2014
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In November 1963 the world was shocked by the assassination of President John F Kennedy, but the picture which brought home to us the horror of what had happened was not of JFK but of his wife in the iconic pink suit, soaked with her husband's blood. ''Let them see what they have done'', she said. I've always assumed that the suit was new for the occasion - but it had a back story too and it's told in ''The Pink Suit'', a work of historical fiction based on facts.
It wasn't considered politically appropriate for the wife of the President of the United States to wear couture clothes from France. It was an insult to the American clothing industry - but The Wife was very fussy about her clothes and a way had to be found around this problem and it was done through Chez Ninon, an exclusive Manhattan atelier. They produced much of Mrs Kennedy's wardrobe. Occasionally the clothes were shameless copies of the work of French couturiers, but the pink suit was special. To start with it wasn't pink, it was ''raspberry'' - or so Coco Chanel insisted and this time Chez Ninon were prepared to pay for the original toile to make up the suit.
