The Gripping Appeal of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s Headband
The New York Times
A wide and tightfitting hair accessory favored by the wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr., has become a hot commodity, 25 years after her death.
Nicole Nigro, a 24-year-old software engineer in Brooklyn, was not yet born when a plane crash killed John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette on July 16, 1999.
But Ms. Bessette-Kennedy was at the top of Ms. Nigro’s mind on Friday when she went to Zitomer, an upscale pharmacy on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, looking for a headband she saw in TikTok videos. Specifically, a tortoiseshell headband that is 1.375 inches wide, costs $35 and has been linked to Ms. Bessette-Kennedy because she was photographed wearing it multiple times before she died at 33.
In the 25 years since, Ms. Bessette-Kennedy, a former publicist at Calvin Klein, has for many people functioned as a posthumous fashion influencer. Some of them, like Ms. Nigro, learned about her through social media posts highlighting Ms. Bessette-Kennedy’s preference for minimal clothing. (“Simple and timeless,” as Ms. Nigro put it.)
But unlike Ms. Bessette-Kennedy’s clothes from designer labels like Yohji Yamamoto and Prada — some of which are currently on auction at Sotheby’s — the tortoiseshell headbands offer an accessible way to emulate her style. They have been branded the “CBK Headband” online and by some fashion publications, a term that is used to describe both the exact style worn by Ms. Bessette-Kennedy and other tortoiseshell headbands of varying widths, colors and makers.
The 1.375-inch-wide headbands she wore are made by Charles J. Wahba, a label founded in New York City in 1959. Handmade in France of acetate, its headbands can fit tightly, but are said to mold to the shape of a wearer’s head. They are sold at other luxurious pharmacies, including C.O. Bigelow in Greenwich Village, where Ms. Bessette-Kennedy is said to have bought her headbands.
But no store has sold them longer than Zitomer, where Ms. Bessette-Kennedy is said to have shopped as well (for shampoo and scrunchies). The nearly 75-year-old pharmacy, which is known for its extensive selection of hair accessories, has carried the label’s headbands, claw clips and barrettes since 1976.
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