Originally intended to be as private a wedding as possible, photos and some low-resolution video camera footage of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. taken intimately on Cumberland Island, Georgia, are as prevalent among brides today as they were when they first tied the knot in 1996.
Among Bessette Kennedy’s historic fashion choices (too many to name: Yohji Yamamoto eveningwear, Selima Saraun sunglasses, Prada camel coat that recently sold for $192,000…), her most iconic ensemble is without a doubt her wedding look: a bias-cut, cowl-neck, silk slip dress designed by her Calvin Klein colleague-turned-close friend Narciso. Rodriguez changed the bridal industry as it was known in the 90s.
“Part of the appeal of this production was that it was so simple,” says “Love Story” costume designer Rudy Mans. “But the way it hung on her, and the way it draped…I knew it had to be as accurate as possible.”
And while being as accurate as possible may have been Mance’s ethos with the entire costume for the Ryan Murphy-produced FX anthology series, when it came to recreating Bessette Kennedy’s (played by Sarah Pidgeon) dress in Episode 6 (aka “The Wedding”), he knew it had to be absolutely perfect, along with every other detail from the day.
To confirm that this was the case, Mance combed through every photo and reportage related to the wedding that could be found. Particularly helpful was the 2019 documentary “JFK Jr. and Carolyn’s Wedding: The Lost Tapes,” which featured archival footage of the couple’s rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and reception. “My team and I probably watched it 100 times,” Mance said.
Both Pigeon’s rehearsal and ceremony dresses were completely custom designed (Mance worked with a Philadelphia-based couturier to bring the looks to life). In the case of the former, this required a little more investigation. As iconic as it is, the champagne-colored mid-length dress, also designed by Rodriguez, was rarely photographed, leaving Muns open to interpretation.
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“I knew it had some sparkle and sparkle to it, and I knew it definitely had beads on it, but I couldn’t tell exactly what kind of beads it was,” Mance explained. To create Pigeondon’s complete look, Mance ended up combining the two dresses. This dress has a champagne slip lining and transparent beads on top. “We hand-stitched the two dresses together while she was still wearing them. Then we said, ‘Okay, let’s go to set!'”
For the ceremony dress, Mance studied “lost tapes” to “see when she danced, when she walked, how it moved, how it fell, how it kicked off.” The gown worn by Pigeon is as accurate a replica as possible, down to the fabric, which is exactly the same material Rodriguez used when designing the original. One of Mance’s assistants happened upon the gown while sourcing and looking at potential options at B&J Fabrics in New York. While there, the owner told them that the designer had actually purchased this fabric there 30 years ago. “Of course, it was very old and yellowed and discolored, but he had the original specimen,” Mance says. Through B&J, Mance and his team were able to have fabric shipped from the manufacturer’s factory in Italy, which they used to create the fabrics that appear on screen in “Love Story.”
Even the tulle veil, sheer elbow gloves, and Manolo Blahnik shoes Pigeon wears as she walks down the aisle are all authentic. Mance retrieved Heel from the archives. He also had the veil and gloves remade by the same company that originally made them.
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However, not every moment of the episode required a historically accurate recreation.
Bessette Kennedy’s more private time leading up to the ceremony allowed Mance some “creative freedom,” he said. While getting ready at the Greyfield Inn (where the wedding reception was held and guests stayed), the costume designer dressed Pigeon in a vintage Calvin Klein slip dress, a subtle homage to Bessette Kennedy’s corporate days. “It felt romantic, right, and real,” he says.
In another scene, Pigeon is wearing a robe while smoking a cigarette in a hotel bathtub. Blink and you’ll miss it, but that emblem is the Inn’s authentic 1996 logo. “Somehow my talented team found it in the middle of nowhere on eBay,” Mance says. “I got it and it wasn’t in very good condition, so I remade the robe and based it on the guest robes of the time.”
From start to finish, it took Mance and his assistants more than three weeks to outfit Pigeon and Paul Anthony Kelly (JFK Jr.) for their wedding, and procurement began even earlier for the remaining guests. And while Mance said dressing Kelly for the infamous public fight scene was JFK Jr.’s most difficult costume, Bessette Kennedy’s dress was definitely a prom dress. “This is probably one of the most iconic and most photographed wedding dresses of all time,” Mance says. “I just wanted to shut up and do my job and pay my respects to (Rodriguez) and give him and his beautiful work justice.”
But for Mance, her favorite part of the episode, even more than seeing the dress come to life, was watching the entire wedding “collide” and be immortalized on screen. Just like in real life (Bessette Kennedy was famously late for the ceremony after needing a last-minute dress alteration), the film crew was running late on set, giving them very little time to capture the entire candlelit wedding before the sun went out.
“It was very hot that day. We were shooting in a remote area in upstate New York. They built this beautiful church, but it had rained a couple days before, so it was very swampy and muddy. Of course, that gave me anxiety, because she was wearing this dress,” says Mance. “And then she literally got in the Jeep and we filmed it. And 20 minutes later…it was just movie magic.”
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