Style icons

Accessory signatures that lasted — what each one actually did, and the transferable part. Style history rather than a shopping feed.

We host no photographs of anyone. These pages report documented, published style history and link to the coverage they draw on.

• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

  She turned a pair of sunglasses into privacy, and in doing so invented a silhouette that has never left.

  1960s–1990s · Oversized sunglasses

• Iris Apfel

  “More is more, and less is a bore.” The most rigorous maximalist who ever lived.

  1950s–2024 · Oversized round glasses and stacked bangles

• Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel

  She made fake jewellery respectable, which is the single most consequential accessory decision of the last century.

  1920s–1971 · Costume pearls worn beside real ones

• Grace Kelly

  The only person on this list with a handbag shape named after her — and it happened by accident.

  1950s–1982 · Pearls in daylight, and a bag that took her name

• Audrey Hepburn

  The pearls everyone remembers belonged to a character. The sunglasses were genuinely hers.

  1950s–1993 · Oversized sunglasses — and a famous necklace that was not hers

• Diana, Princess of Wales

  Her real innovation was not any single piece. It was refusing to keep formal jewellery for formal occasions.

  1980s–1997 · Formal jewellery worn against informal clothes