Rating: 
Summary: gorgeous book depicting the first among First Ladies
Review: This book shows Jackie Kennedy during her truncated run as First Lady in designs by Oleg Cassini. Each entry has a photo of Jackie Kennedy at a historical event during JFK's presidency, with details of the outfit she is wearing as well as a short blurb on the time and significance of the event.
Rating:
Summary: A Combination that Works
Review: This lovely volume combines Cassini's memoirs of working closely with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis during her brief White House years, his fashion philosophies and ideas, and the iconography of the early 1960s style and vigor of the Kennedy years. Each piece plays the right part in the book as a whole, illustrating what must have been an enchanted time for Cassini. If one is interested in fashion and its technical aspects, the book's sketches and interesting details (letters from Jackie about to whom Cassini should send swatches for hat and glove construction for each dress), his memories of Jackie along with excerpts of her letters (photographic and in text, reproduced verbatim) along with the requisite, but lovely photographs of Jackie is his creations. It brings couture to the United States in a grand way and makes this French sensibilitiy part of our own Americana.With all of the Jackie Kennedy products on the market, it was lovely to read such a heartfelt memoir from the man who helped to position her in our nation's consciousness as a precious and dear woman.
Rating:
Summary: A Combination that Works
Review: This lovely volume combines Cassini's memoirs of working closely with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis during her brief White House years, his fashion philosophies and ideas, and the iconography of the early 1960s style and vigor of the Kennedy years. Each piece plays the right part in the book as a whole, illustrating what must have been an enchanted time for Cassini. If one is interested in fashion and its technical aspects, the book's sketches and interesting details (letters from Jackie about to whom Cassini should send swatches for hat and glove construction for each dress), his memories of Jackie along with excerpts of her letters (photographic and in text, reproduced verbatim) along with the requisite, but lovely photographs of Jackie is his creations. It brings couture to the United States in a grand way and makes this French sensibilitiy part of our own Americana. With all of the Jackie Kennedy products on the market, it was lovely to read such a heartfelt memoir from the man who helped to position her in our nation's consciousness as a precious and dear woman.
Rating:
Summary: Secrets to Jackie's White House Style--Divine!
Review: With her cultured and educated eye for style, Jackie accomplished from the start what took Princess Diana ten years to figure out: How to create a distinct look and always stand out in a crowd. Jackie had the height, the figure, and a love of the finest quality and simplicity in all things. She hired Oleg Cassini, who agreed to "dress" her only if he were her one and only designer. Cassini had a perfect vision for the demands of Jackie's position, and an eye for the look she could pull off. Being her only designer meant gave Jackie a look, a continuity of style that only she could carry off. The demands on Cassini were great--he had to produce her entire wardrobe, and she wanted to be wearing originals. Occasionally she'd ask for someting from his ready-to-wear line, like when she went to India and realized the heat might force her to change her clothes three or four times a day, but otherwise Cassini did true couture for her--he designed and made (with the help of his atelier, of course) every single garment Jackie wore just for her and her figure and her schedule. The result was magic! As the beautiful photographs show, Jackie always stood out in a crowd. Wearing sleek, simple clothes in sumptuous fabrics, everyone else inevitably looked fussy and overdressed in comparison--even when they were trying to copy her style. This book is as maginificent tribute to Jackie, couture, Cassini, and personal style. I loved reading the details about the dresses which I heretofore had only caught glimpses of in photographs. Princess Diana could have taken a page or two out of Jackie's book; indeed, toward the end of her life she did. Many of Diana's best clothes could have come straight from Cassini. Catherine Walker and Lagerfield for Chanel did a great job of reinterpreting Cassini/Jackie style for Diana. For anyone interested in fashion and history and the magic of the Kennedys, this books is amazing.
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