It happens to the best of us, I guess., but is the suit a fake, or just a copy, or "inspired by"?
Former First Lady Jackie Onassis/Kennedy is still making headlines, this time in an interview with Karl Lagerfeld in which he spoke of the iconic pink suit she wore the day her husband was killed.
The raspberry pink bouclé skirt suit with blue collar, assumed by all to be Chanel, was revealed by the German designer to have actually been a 'line-by-line' recreation by American dressmaker, Oleg Cassini.
Jackie Kennedy's pink bouclé suit, the one she wore the day JFK was assassinated, is revealed to be a copy by Karl Lagerfeld though opinions are divided as to who recreated it
In an interview for Style.com also featuring Carine Roitfeld, the former Paris Vogue editor recalled the fateful day the president was assassinated as the first time she had seen a Chanel jacket. She was quickly corrected by Lagerfeld who said: 'In 1963. It was a fake, a line-by-line copy by Cassini. She did have real Chanels, [but] her sister ordered them. We have all the proof.'
Though Kennedy famously adored Chanel and Givenchy, after a spending spree in Paris caught the attention of the media during JFK's presidential campaign she had been advised to keep her sights on couture closer to home in order to seem patriotic.
Jackie Kennedy in a Chez Ninon dress inspired by Christian Dior
Despite Lagerfeld's recent comments, the provenance of the outfit has been hotly debated for a while among fashion historians.
While it is widely acknowledged the outfit was a copy, many sources point to a New York dress shop called Chez Ninon rather than Cassini. In an article in the New York Times, Bill Cunningham made mention of the fact that the glamorous First Lady was indeed a client of the high society dressmakers. Justine Picardie who authored Coco Chanel's biography confirmed the same.
'[She] was able to acquire Chanel outfits sewn for her in New York by a dressmaking establishment called Chez Ninon. The garments were not fake or pirated, but made to order using materials supplied by Chanel in Paris,' she wrote. 'Thus it was,' the biographer added, 'that she came to be wearing a vivid pink Chanel suit (complete with fabric, trim and buttons from 31 Rue Cambon, but fitted at Chez Ninon) on 22nd November 1963, accompanying her husband to Dallas.'
The suggestion by Picardie seems accurate given that the biography was approved by Chanel but what does appear certain either way is that it was not made by the French fashion house.
Jackie Kennedy Onassis remained a Chanel devotee after her time as First Lady when she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
