The Fashion Spot

EDWARD KENNEDY
The Elder Statesman.



In many ways, we have more to learn from Ted Kennedy than any of his brothers.  All of them inhabited their own myth.  Their youthful good looks were their introduction, and their charm their handshake.  Ted had a good run at this, but what we learn from him is how to grow old.

First, when you're older, you make your own rules.  You've lived your life and you've done the best you could.  Now you can wear whatever blazer is most comfortable.  You can wear suspenders if you feel like it.

When you get older, you lose your looks but keep your character.  You may lose your eye for fashion but you keep your style.  And, like a robust vocabulary, as you age, you keep growing in grace.  Take this little bit from last year's New York Times article about Ted:

When Mr. Kennedy learned that former Senator Tom Daschle’s brother was fighting the same type of brain cancer, the senator put him in touch with his doctors and opened his Boston home to him while he received treatment. He also offered assistance to the conservative columnist Robert D. Novak, a fierce critic of his, when Mr. Novak learned last year that he had a similar cancer.


JACKIE O.
The Matriarch.



But it wasn't just the boys who had style.  Last month, Vanity Fair ran a cover story about Jackie O., whose influence on style can be seen even now in the work of designers like Christopher Kane, who emulates her grace and color pallette.  This article charmingly points out how Jackie was in a league all her own:

She spoke French to de Gaulle during Kennedy’s triumphant visit to Paris (“I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it,” he famously remarked)

Now there's a woman who knows how to make an impression.




She's also a woman who knows how to grow into maturity and maintain her poise as a mother.  Here she is romping around with the kids with her hair down and a simple short sleeve knit turtleneck.

She held the country together when her husband was assassinated and stood by Vice President Johnson in her blood spattered Chanel suit as he was sworn in.

The only other public figure who has made such a gracious impression at such a young age is the current Queen of England.  If they printed Jackie O's face on American currency, she would be depicted exactly as she was in Paris almost 40 years ago.