Why Jackie Kennedy Never Wore Her Original Wedding Dress

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Above all else, including her marriage to John F. Kennedy and her first ladyship, Jackie Kennedy Onassis was known for her impeccable style. She was a trendsetter who put Gucci's saddlebags on the map. Her pillbox hats and vibrant shift dresses of the '60s are still an inspiration to elite modern fashion, including what Catherine, Princess of Wales wears today. But the look that will go down in history as her most iconic is the wedding dress she wore to marry JFK in 1953.

Jackie's awe-inspiring tiered, silk taffeta gown was created by Ann Lowe, a well-known fashion designer in the aristocratic New York scene. According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the ivory dress was comprised of "off-the-shoulder cap sleeves, a back zipper closure, and a portrait neckline." The skirt was designed in the bouffant style and incorporated a scalloped hemline and large, flower embellishments all around its circumference. The archives noted that, "Jacqueline Bouvier's ivory silk wedding gown required 50 yards of ivory silk taffeta and took more than two months to make" — on top of the pink silk gowns for her bridesmaids. However, according to insider accounts, Jackie never walked down the aisle in her original dress. That's because it was water-damaged just days before the wedding.

One week before Jackie Kennedy Onassis was set to marry John F. Kennedy at the most beautiful event of the century, Ann Lowe's studio on NYC's Lexington Avenue flooded, leaving 10 of the 15 gowns unwearable, per a December 1966 issue of Ebony magazine. Lowe and her team worked tirelessly for a week to recreate the gowns — her fabric supplier luckily had enough material for the duplicates. According to the outlet, what was supposed to be a $700 profit for Lowe ended up being a $2,200 forfeit. To the couturier, however, it was a worthwhile sacrifice. Lowe told the outlet, "I love my clothes, and I'm particular about who wears them. I am not interested in sewing for cafe society or social climbers. I do not cater to Mary and Sue. I sew for the families of the Social Register."

Lowe wasn't exactly given her due credit for Jackie's dress, initially. According to Rosemary E. Reed Miller, the author of "The Threads of Time, The Fabric of History," Jackie dismissed Lowe's reputation. "[Jackie] said, I wanted to go to France but a colored dressmaker did it," said Miller in her retelling to NPR. In an interview with Elle, Julia Faye Smith — who penned Lowe's biography "Something to Prove" — recounted that after the designer wrote a letter to the New York socialite, Jackie's secretary called Lowe and said Jackie didn't know her words would be published. She later attempted to retract them from the publication, to no avail. The two women fostered a relationship backed by mutual respect. Jackie was even thought to have become an anonymous patron of Lowe's business, which was on the brink of bankruptcy, per Smith.