Did Everyone Overreact About the 'American Love Story' Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy Outfits?

Ryan Murphy’s shows and online controversy have become inseparable, like peanut butter and jelly. You can’t imagine one of his series without a firestorm of discourse (see 2024’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story). Yet the vitriol direction at FX's American Love Story—his upcoming series about Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and loss—hit an even sharper note, all from a quick glimpse at the cast’s outfits.

The images—a pre-production necessity for checking lighting and color tests—showed Sarah Pidgeon as Bessette wearing a waxy camel leather coat and denim, with an empty Hermès Birkin bag dangling from her hand. Commenters ranging from amateur CBK style trackers to legacy fashion magazines analyzed every detail of her look and arrived at the same conclusion: this is not a proper homage to the late Calvin Klein publicist and American style icon. The jacket appears to be fast fashion, not from Bessette’s favorite designers like Yohji Yamamoto or Ann Demeulemeester. Her Birkin is the wrong size and looks barely broken in. Even her blonde shade was criticized in Vogue by Bessette-Kennedy's former colorist.

Strong reactions were partly expected. Even before her untimely death in a 1999 plane crash, tracking Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's outfits was a national pastime. Karl Lagerfeld once described her to WWD as having "the look of the nineties." While only about 100 images of her exist on the public record, from galas with her husband, John F. Kennedy Jr., to walks with her dog, Friday, they were enough to define her distinctive taste in the American cultural lexicon. She made beige look like more than just a "neutral"; she made tortoiseshell headbands a staple accessory. Her collection of Prada coats and Yohji skirts reflected much more than the minimalism often associated with her likeness today.

Only a few direct quotes from Bessette exist, too, enhancing the mystery around just how she cultivated her style in her too-brief 31 years. Since her death, however, admiration for her fashion has grown tremendously: Instagram accounts are dedicated to memorializing her style, and designers from Carolina Herrera to Khaite include her on their current mood boards.

Clearly, onlookers are protective about getting Carolyn Bessette-Kenndy's outfits right in a major TV adaptation. Much of 2025 fashion—the quiet luxury movement and the creation of a capsule wardrobe—can be traced back to her. However, it seems the outrage cycle moved a little too quickly regarding American Love Story. In an interview with Variety, Murphy stated that the pieces seen in early images weren't actually part of the official wardrobe for the character.

Referring to the New York Times best-seller Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, as well as a "style advisory board" of ten experts, Murphy said he and series costume designer Lou Eyrich are taking great care to accurately depict Bessette's wardrobe in the actual series. Her renowned Narciso Rodriguez wedding dress from 1996 will be recreated stitch-for-stitch; the show has also sourced exact Manolo Blahnik heels and Prada boots she once wore. A handbag expert is even scuffing up a Birkin—in Bessette's preferred 40cm size—to match the one she carried in real life. The test images were just that: a test.

Digital uproar over the test images' accuracy and early paparazzi shots of the set reminded the showrunner of the scrutiny the real CBK faced in nineties New York. "We’re writing a story about a person—an unknown person—who falls in love with the most famous man in the world and suddenly she can’t leave her house," Murphy said. "They’re doing to our Carolyn, what they did to the real-life Carolyn. It's not fair."

Indeed, despite all the times Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy was photographed, she rarely sought the spotlight. The record of her fashion influence was captured by relentless paparazzi, after all.

I think that Carolyn would feel uncomfortable being the icon of her look—she would think, it's just a camel coat or jeans—because I have a feeling she enjoyed her anonymity," the designer Conner Ives wrote in an essay for Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy: A Life In Fashion.

American Love Story is currently filming in New York City. Production is expected to last until October, with the series premiering on Valentine's Day 2026. This means the verdict on Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's onscreen portrayal can't be made just yet. So, with input from Sunita Kumar Nair's 2023 book, I've outlined a few of Bessette's most memorable outfits that the show should include in its homage to CBK. Hopefully, they'll get it right.

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's Denim and Sandals

The following is one of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's few direct quotes about her personal style: "I'm not comfortable in anything ornate," she told Glamour in 1992. "I like clean, understated looks." Walking her dog, Friday, around Lower Manhattan gave some of the clearest insights into her daily, anti-ornate style philosophy. Levi's jeans and Manolo Blahnik sandals in neutral tones were among her favorites, paired with a sleeveless sweater or a well-appointed tank.

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's Chanel Cruise Dress

Prints were a rare sight on Carolyn," Kumar Nair notes in her 2023 book. That doesn't mean CBK exclusively wore solid beige, black, and white. This Chanel dress coated in hand-sketch camellias reached Bessette-Kennedy via Karl Lagerfeld's 1996 Cruise collection. Her patent leather back and pointed slingbacks are consistent with the minimalism that screams CBK today — but a proper look back at her wardrobe would also include moments of color, like this.

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's Yohji Yamamoto Skirt Suit

You'd be hard-pressed to find a CBK-inspired runway collection or personal mood board that doesn't feature her Yohji Yamamoto look from the 1999 Whitney Museum benefit gala. It captured her street style at its best, in an elegant evening setting: elevating a humble basic—the white button-up—into something special with its sleeves rolled just right and paired with a tailored skirt that has fluted ruffles at the hem. As one of the last outfits Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy wore in public—and one of her favorite designers—American Love Story would earn major style points by faithfully recreating it.

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's Versace Couture Gown

Another moment from Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's event wardrobe that's worth revisiting: her Versace Couture coat dress from the 1998 Fire Ice ball. CBK reportedly told a friend she was "poured into" the off-white tweed gown, with its extra-tight tailoring marking a departure from her usual evening looks.

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's New York City Coats

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy made several trips to Milan. Most times, she returned with fresh Prada coats in tow. Miuccia Prada, it seemed, was one of the few designers who understood CBK's need for outerwear that served like armor (and looked good doing so). "Those are rich girls' coats—girls who get into cars, get out of them, go into restaurants, and go back into cars," she once described her outerwear. "You need a real coat for New York weather and life." The American Love Story team will hopefully take their subject's own words to heart and dig through Prada's archives for similar layers.

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's Headband and Sunglasses

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's most copied outfits feature two key accessories: her headband from the New York City pharmacy Zitomer and her slim Selima Optique sunglasses. These two pieces are still within reach for the American Love Story costume team: decades after CBK's passing, they remain top-selling items for women wanting to imitate her style. "It's only after her time that I have had such a demand for these glasses, even to this day," Selima Salaun told Kumar Nair. "I provided glasses for Elizabeth Taylor for a good number of years, but no one ever asked me to remake the glasses like I do for Carolyn."