#46 18 Things Jackie Kennedy Loved That You Can Still Buy Today
The bags, the fragrances, the skincare rituals — her taste was never a trend.
THE JACKIE EDIT
18 Things Jackie Kennedy Loved That You Can Still Buy Today
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis left behind no perfume deal, no licensing arrangement, no beauty line bearing her name. What she left behind was something more durable: a record of taste so consistent and so considered that it reads, six decades on, less like a personal style and more like a philosophy.
She wore the same bags until they were renamed after her. She kept to the same skincare physician for decades. She returned to the same sandal maker every summer. She chose quietly and she chose well. It is perhaps the most difficult thing to teach and the easiest thing to recognize.
What follows is not a mood board. It is a shopping list: the actual objects she reached for, the formulas she trusted, and in a few cases, the modern equivalents that carry the same intention. Nearly all of it is still being made. Nearly all of it is worth your consideration.
1
THE BAG
Gucci Jackie 1961
Gucci introduced this soft, half-moon hobo in the 1950s under a different name — the Constance. It was Jackie who made it legendary. Photographers caught her carrying it throughout the 1960s and '70s, and she was photographed using it with such consistent frequency, often holding it in front of her face to shield herself from lenses, that Gucci eventually did the only sensible thing and renamed it after her. The bag is still produced today in its original silhouette, with the curved piston closure she made iconic. It remains one of the few instances in fashion where the renaming stuck because it was simply, inarguably, correct.
2
THE SCARF
Hermès Carré Silk Scarf
The Hermès silk carré has been woven in Lyon since 1937, and Jackie understood its possibilities better than almost anyone. She wore it knotted under her chin at regattas and aboard the Onassis yacht, tied loosely at the throat over a white shirt, draped over her hair against the Hyannis Port wind. Photographs of her with a scarf tied that particular way remain among the most copied images in the history of style. Practical, but never careless. Each Hermès scarf is still printed in the same Lyon ateliers, still exactly 90 centimeters square, still made with the same rolling technique along the edges. If you want the exact category of luxury she actually lived in, this is it.
3
THE WATCH
Cartier Tank Louis
Louis Cartier designed the Tank in 1917, reportedly inspired by the aerial view of a Renault FT tank crossing the Western Front. Jackie wore hers throughout her White House years and long after, on that narrow, elegant wrist that photographers could never resist. The Tank Louis, the most refined of the Tank family with its rounded, seamless case, carries the same geometry today that it did then: rectangular face, Roman numerals, a blued sapphire crown. It is not a fashion watch. It is a watch that has never had to audition for that designation.
Cartier Tank Solo Mid Size LINK
Cartier Tank Francaise 18k Yellow Gold & Diamond Bezel LINK
4
THE SUNGLASSES
François Pinton “Jackie O” Frames
The oversized round frame associated with Jackie was not merely a shield against the sun, though it served that purpose on the islands of Greece well enough. It was also, quietly, a refusal: the largest possible lens between herself and a watching world. François Pinton, the French optical house founded in 1796, produced frames that Jackie wore in the years following her marriage to Aristotle Onassis. The style that bears her name today exists in similar spirit, large, round, and clean, and they remain among the most flattering sunglasses a woman can own.
5
THE SANDAL
Jack Rogers Navajo Sandal
The story is well-documented and genuinely good: in the late 1950s, Jackie discovered a sandal cobbled in Capri, flat woven leather designed by Jack Rogers, and wore it with such regularity that it became a signature. She ordered them in multiple colors. She wore them throughout the Kennedy summers in Hyannis Port, on the lawns and on the docks. Jack Rogers still makes the Navajo in the same woven silhouette, still in multiple colors. For a flat sandal, it has an extraordinary legacy.
FRAGRANCE
6
THE PERFUME
Joy by Jean Patou
Jean Patou created Joy in 1929, and for decades it held the distinction of being the most expensive perfume in the world per ounce, a distinction earned by the staggering quantity of jasmine and rose absolute required to produce it. Jackie wore it, and the pairing makes a certain kind of sense: a woman who held nothing back in her commitment to beauty, wearing the perfume most committed to extravagance in its construction. It takes roughly 10,000 jasmine blossoms and 28 dozen roses to produce a single ounce.
7
THE PERFUME
Krigler Lovely Patchouli 55
Krigler is a fragrance house with roots in Berlin, favored by royalty and heads of state for over a century. Its clientele has always skewed toward those who treat scent as personal architecture rather than product. Jackie wore Lovely Patchouli 55, an earthy, warm composition that sits at some distance from the lighter, more obvious florals of her era. That choice tells you something about her: she had no interest in smelling expected.
Modern equivalent slightly less expensive LINK
Modern equivalent smaller size slightly less expensive LINK
8
THE PERFUME
Guerlain Jicky
Guerlain created Jicky in 1889, making it one of the oldest fragrances still in continuous production anywhere in the world. It is considered by perfumers to be the first modern perfume, the first to use synthetic ingredients alongside natural ones, the first to treat fragrance as something other than a single floral note. Jackie wore it. She was not collecting curiosities; she simply understood that a great perfume, like a great building, does not need justification. Jicky is still made in Paris, still in the same general formulation, still available in the same distinctive bottle.
SKINCARE & BEAUTY
9
THE MOISTURIZER
Dorothy Gray
Dorothy Gray was an American beauty brand that flourished through the mid-twentieth century, favored by women who took skincare seriously before that was considered a cultural phenomenon. Jackie used their moisturizer as part of her daily routine, an unremarkable choice on the surface but telling in its restraint. She did not need the most expensive or the most fashionable. She needed what worked. The original formula is no longer widely produced, but the modern alternative linked below carries the same intention: a reliable, unfussy daily moisturizer for women who treat their skin as something worth maintaining.
10
THE CLEANSER
Erno Laszlo Sea Mud Deep Cleansing Bar
Dr. Erno Laszlo was a Hungarian-born dermatologist who opened his institute in New York and quietly became one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century skincare. His clients, among them Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Grace, and Jackie Kennedy, followed his protocols with near-religious consistency. The signature ritual involved the Sea Mud Soap and exactly thirty splashes of water per wash. Jackie adhered to his regimen for decades. The Sea Mud bar is still in production, still formulated with Hungarian moor mud, and still sold as the foundation of the Laszlo cleansing method.
11
THE CLEANSING OIL
Erno Laszlo Cleansing Oil
Laszlo prescribed oil cleansing long before it became the mainstay of the modern skincare cycle, another instance of his methods being validated by time rather than trend. Jackie used the cleansing oil as the first step before the Sea Mud bar, the double-cleanse method now standard across most serious skincare routines. That she and her dermatologist had arrived at it in the 1950s is a testament to Laszlo's genuine clinical rigor.
12
THE TREATMENT OIL
Erno Laszlo Phelityl Cleansing Oil
The Phelityl line was Laszlo's formulation for dry and sensitive skin types: richer, more nourishing, designed for women whose skin needed more than standard hydration could offer. Jackie used it as part of her prescribed routine, another layer in the regimen that kept her complexion as polished in her sixties as it had been in the White House years. The Phelityl formula remains one of the most distinctive in the Laszlo range.
13
THE TONER
Erno Laszlo Light Controlling Lotion
The Light Controlling Lotion served as the toning step in Laszlo's protocol, addressing uneven tone, surface texture, and pore appearance as part of the complete system. Laszlo was emphatic that no step be skipped; the routine worked as a whole, and each product was calibrated to function in sequence with the others. Jackie understood this logic. She did not improvise within a routine. She committed to it.
14
THE TREATMENT
Erno Laszlo Formula 3-9 Repair Balm
The 3-9 Repair Balm is Laszlo's intensive overnight treatment, the final word in his system. Rich and restorative, it addresses the kind of dryness and environmental fatigue that accumulates over years. That Jackie was still using Laszlo products through the decades of her post-White House life, through the Onassis years, through her time at Doubleday, through the summers on Martha's Vineyard, speaks to the durability of results that kept her loyal to a single physician's philosophy for her entire adult life.
15
HAIR CARE
Lavender Hair Oil
Jackie's hair, that full, dark, perfectly held bouffant of the White House years and the looser waves of the Onassis period, required real maintenance. Lavender oil was part of her hair care, prized for its scalp benefits and its scent, which served a dual purpose. The use of botanical oils in hair care long predates any current trend; for Jackie, it was simply what worked, and she saw no reason to complicate the question further.
16
FOUNDATION
Elizabeth Arden Flawless Finish
Elizabeth Arden built the first American luxury beauty empire, and her products sat in the dressing rooms of the women who shaped the twentieth century. Jackie used the Flawless Finish foundation, a formula known for its fine-milled texture and its ability to photograph cleanly, which mattered more than one might expect for a woman who was photographed as relentlessly as she was. The formulation has evolved, but the name and the philosophy, coverage that flatters without announcing itself, have remained constants in the Arden range.
17
LIP COLOR
Elizabeth Arden Lipstick
Jackie wore her lipstick in the warmer, coral-adjacent tones that suited her complexion, never the sharp, theatrical reds of the era but something closer to a refined rose. Elizabeth Arden lipsticks were part of her makeup routine, and the brand's range of flattering, wearable reds and roses made the choice a natural one. The Arden lipstick collection continues to offer the same spectrum of elevated, liveable color that it always has.
18
THE BEDROOM ESSENTIAL
Silk Pillowcases
Silk pillowcases were not a 2020 wellness discovery. Women who took their skin and hair seriously have slept on silk for the better part of a century, and Jackie was among them. The logic is sound: silk's smooth surface creates significantly less friction than cotton, reducing the creasing and hair breakage that accumulate over eight hours of sleep.
A Note on What Endures
What makes this list remarkable is not that these things are still available. It is that none of them became available because of Jackie Kennedy. The Hermès carré predates her. The Cartier Tank predates her. Guerlain Jicky predates her by decades. The Jack Rogers sandal was simply a sandal a craftsman in Capri had always made. She found these things because she was looking for quality rather than novelty, and quality, it turns out, tends to persist. That is perhaps the most transferable thing about her taste: it was not about what was new. It was about what was worth keeping.
-Faith
THE FULL VIDEO
THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS. CULTURED ELEGANCE MAY EARN A COMMISSION ON PURCHASES MADE THROUGH THESE LINKS AT NO ADDITIONAL COST TO YOU.