When Jacqueline Kennedy joined the Dallas presidential motorcade that November morning in 1963, her double-breasted pink suit was meant to be a crowd-pleaser. Instead, it became a blood-soaked emblem of national tragedy, transformed in seconds from a fashion statement to a historical artifact.
Six decades after bullets killed her husband, President John F. Kennedy, the former first lady’s outfit is still the subject of curiosity and speculation — from its false Chanel origins to the mysterious location of her matching pink pillbox hat.
Preserved by the National Archives of the United States in Maryland, the pink suit, which was never cleaned and remains stained with JFK’s blood, will be locked away until 2103.
Here, WWD looks back at the rich history behind the outfit and what happened to it after the shooting.
It was never Chanel
Although Jackie Kennedy’s pink suit is commonly associated with Chanel, the piece wasn’t technically crafted by the French label, but was inspired by one of the looks in Coco Chanel’s 1961 fall collection.
Following the election of her husband on Nov. 8, 1960, the first lady committed to only wearing American-made pieces, which she made very clear in a letter sent to WWD in January 1961.
“Mrs. Kennedy realizes that the clothes she wears are of interest to the public, but she is distressed by the implications of extravagance or overemphasis of fashion in relation to her name by firms from whom she has not bought clothes,” the letter said. “For the next four years, Mrs. Kennedy’s clothes will be by Oleg Cassini. They will be designed and made in America. She will buy what is necessary, without extravagance — and you will often see her photographed in the same outfit.”
John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.
Getty Images
Cassini, who reportedly created 300 total looks for Kennedy, designed the outfit with help from Chez Ninon, a New York dress shop owned by Nona McAdoo Park and Sophie Meldrim Shonnard, who imported European materials and put them together in the U.S.
In 2012, late designer and former Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld confirmed Kennedy’s suit was “line-by-line copy by Cassini” in an interview with Tim Blanks for style.com.
“She was American style at its best,” Lagerfeld told WWD in 1994. “She had magnetism. Everything looked wonderful on her. She gave a really top-class look a timeless elegance.”
The raspberry pink suit was made of wool boucle and featured gold buttons, navy blue piping on the sleeves and navy lapels.
The suit became one of Jackie Kennedy’s favorite looks
Jackie wore her pink suit at least six times before the day of her husband’s assassination, including during the couple’s visit to London in March 1962 and during the visit of the Maharaja of Jaipur in Washington, D.C., in October 1962.
Jackie Kennedy wearing the pink suit in London on March 26, 1962.
Mirrorpix via Getty Images
According to William Manchester, who wrote the 1967 bestseller “The Death of a President,” Jackie wore the pink suit during the Dallas presidential motorcade after a request from JFK.
“‘There are going to be all these rich, Republican women at that lunch,’” JFK told her, according to a Vanity Fair interview with Manchester. “’You’ve got to look as marvelous as any of them. Be simple — show these Texans what good taste really is.’ So she tramped in and out of his room, holding dresses in front of her. The outfits finally chosen — weather permitting — were all veterans of her wardrobe: beige and white dresses, blue and yellow suits, and, for Dallas, a pink suit with a navy blue collar and a matching pink pillbox hat.”
“Let them see what they’ve done”
In the 2023 “JFK: One Day in America” documentary, Clint Hill, the U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to Jackie, recounted the events of JFK’s assassination.
“I jumped to the rear bumper. Mrs. Kennedy was screaming, ‘I love Jack.’ I wasn’t fast enough,” he said.
Jackie’s pink suit was stained with her husband’s blood after she held his body in the backseat of the car.
John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.
Bettmann Archive
“As we ground to a halt — we were still the third car — Secret Service men began to pull, lead, guide, and hustle us out. I cast one last look over my shoulder and saw in the president’s car a bundle of pink, just like a drift of blossoms, lying in the back seat. It was Mrs. Kennedy lying over the president’s body,” Lady Bird Johnson later wrote in her diary, according to PBS.
At the Parkland Memorial Hospital, Jackie was offered another set of clothes. She decided to wash her face but maintained the same outfit.
“One second later, I thought, ‘Why did I wash the blood off [my face]?’ I should have left it there; let them see what they’ve done,” Jackie later told Life magazine.
The hat and white gloves were lost
Jackie’s outfit was recovered after the episode and placed in a dress box, except for her pink pillbox hat and white gloves. It’s believed the hat and gloves were left in the hospital.
“While standing there, I was handed Jackie’s pillbox hat,” Mary Gallagher, the first lady’s personal secretary, wrote in her memoir “My Life With Jacqueline Kennedy.” “I could almost visualize her yanking it from her head.”
Gallagher, who died in 2022, said she didn’t know where the accessories ended up.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Jacqueline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy at a breakfast in Fort Worth, Texas, on the morning the president was assassinated, Nov. 22, 1963.
Corbis via Getty Images
“The hat apparently goes to the Secret Service initially and the Secret Service turns it over to Mrs. Kennedy’s private secretary, and then it disappears. It has not been seen since,” Philip Shenon, author of “A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination,” told CNN in 2013.
The box with Jackie Kennedy’s outfit was given to her mother, Janet Auchincloss, who died in 1981. Caroline Kennedy, Jackie’s daughter, legally inherited the outfit after her grandmother’s death.
National Archive
Jackie’s pink suit has been preserved by the National Archives since 1964. The outfit was sent to the organization in a box with a note written by Auchincloss: “Jackie’s suit and bag — worn November 22, 1963.”
In 2003, Caroline Kennedy signed a deed of gift, officially donating the outfit to the National Archives under determined conditions. The main one was to keep the outfit locked away until 2103.
“The family further desires to ensure that the Materials never be subject to public display, research or any other use that would in any way dishonor the memory of Mrs. Kennedy or President Kennedy, or cause any grief or suffering to members of their family. None of the Materials shall be placed on public display for any reason whatsoever,” the agreement said.
The outfit is stored in an acid-free box with temperature and humidity control.
“Jackie”
In 2016, costume designer Madeline Fontaine recreated the infamous pink suit for Natalie Portman to wear in Pablo Larraín’s “Jackie.” Fontaine, like Chez Ninon, sourced original material from Chanel to create the piece.
“Once they saw the finished product, Chanel gave us the correct buttons, chain and label from the period,” Fontaine told WWD in 2016.
Portman was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Jackie Kennedy.
The pink suit also inspired designs seen in Lana Del Rey’s “National Anthem” music video, “Scream Queens” and “Legally Blonde.” Moschino also reinterpreted the style for its fall 2018 collection.
