Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy: The MENA Edit

Before “quiet luxury” became shorthand, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy had already established a way of dressing defined by restraint.

The 1990s oscillated between logomania and Versace excess, with a strain of minimalism pushing in the opposite direction. Bessette-Kennedy, who spent seven years at Calvin Klein, rising from sales director to head of public relations, was shaped by a house built on the idea that less could carry more weight.

Sunita Kumar Nair, author of a book widely regarded as the definitive account of her style, described Bessette-Kennedy’s white shirts as her “magnum opus in simplicity”, each untucked hem and open collar calibrated for proportion and balance.

It was also widely reported that she asked for labels to be removed from pieces she bought — Prada among them — stripping her wardrobe of visible branding and any association beyond the clothes themselves.

She has returned to the cultural conversation through Love Story, which traces her relationship with John F. Kennedy Jr. and, by its fifth episode, had become the network’s most-watched limited series.

In this edit, we ask what would it look like if her principles; precision, neutrality, the long line, the considered fabric, the single deliberate detail - were expressed entirely through designers from our region?