I Have Complicated Feelings About the Carolyn Bessette Effect

Everyone and their mother is fawning over Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s iconic, effortless, minimalist ‘90s style…and many of the icon’s biggest admirers weren’t even alive to experience true ‘90s culture.

But those of us who are old enough to remember what the decade truly felt like seem to have some complicated feelings about the Carolyn Bessette effect. I know I do. When I watch Love Story, the show about Bessette’s real life love story with John F. Kennedy Jr., I feel a real sense of nostalgia for the time period…but because I was there, I don’t see it with rose-colored glasses.

So much of the Carolyn Bessette effect is about the time period as opposed to just the woman’s style (which was, to be clear, fabulous). There’s a sense of longing for something we can’t quite get back. 

There was a simplicity to ‘90s culture that was reflected in the style: Not everything was hyper trendy and there wasn’t this need to define your aesthetic. There also wasn’t the intense pressure of plastic surgery, Botox, and social media filtering…and so we had the privilege of growing up with expressive, character-filled beauty.

But let’s not pretend there weren’t other problematic beauty standards in the ‘90s. Carolyn Bessette became iconic in large part because she fit the mold: Tall, thin, blonde, white. We were told, through subtle and overt messages, that this was the only way to be beautiful as a woman. The standards then were also incredibly exclusive, though arguably in a different way than they are now.

The Carolyn Bessette effect invites us to look back on how our ideas about what an ‘it girl’ should be have shifted…for better and for worse. It sheds light on how the one thing that hasn't changed is this: We’ve always demanded that women fit into this narrow ideal. 

The Carolyn Bessette effect is all about longing for simple, natural, minimalist aesthetic…which feels impossible in 2026, when the pressure to do the most in the name of beauty, to be constantly on top of an ever-changing trend cycle, and to attempt every wellness hack under the sun loom large. 

People may be idolizing the late icon now, but anyone who is watching Love Story knows that wasn’t always the case. Even she was picked apart mercilessly. Because while we no longer have the simplicity of the ‘90s and the minimalist style it inspires, what we still have is a culture that expects too much of women…and punishes them too easily. That hasn't changed one bit.