Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
She turned a pair of sunglasses into privacy, and in doing so invented a silhouette that has never left.
The signature: Oversized sunglasses
Oversized sunglasses existed before Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and they were not the point of an outfit until she made them one. Through the 1960s and 70s she wore round and butterfly frames at a scale nobody was wearing, and the reason was not primarily decorative: she was among the most photographed women alive, and a large dark lens is the only accessory that removes a face from a photograph while you are still standing in it.
That is worth dwelling on because it is the most functional origin story in accessory history. The frames were armour. They allowed her to look at people who were looking at her, which is a genuine asymmetry, and the effect reads as composure whether or not composure is what is happening.
The silhouette she settled on — a round or softly squared frame considerably wider than the face, in a dark tortoise or black — is still sold under her name by manufacturers who have no connection to her, which is its own comment on how completely the association stuck.
Her other constants were a silk headscarf tied under the chin, worn with the sunglasses as a single unit, and a restrained approach to jewellery that leaned on repetition rather than variety. She wore the same small number of things very often, which is the least glamorous and most effective styling strategy there is.
What transfers
An accessory can do a job. Hers solved a real problem — being looked at constantly — and the style consequence was a by-product. If you are choosing between two things, the one that solves something in your actual day will get worn and the one that only looks good will not.
Sources
- Who What Wear — Jackie O’s summer style has never been more relevant (read Aug 16, 2026)
