For two years in the early 1960s, Jackie Kennedy, then First Lady of the United States, regularly sported a diamond brooch expertly pinned into her chignon. An improvised tiara whose elegance has impressed politicians and royals from all over the world.
Jacqueline Kennedy is a fashion icon. In the Chanel suits at the White House or in the hair held back with a silk scarf in Capri, the style of the first lady of the United States marked the 60s and 70s, and many of the following generations. Alongside John Fitzgerald Kennedy and then her second husband, billionaire Aristotle Onassis, “Jackie” uses her wardrobe as a tool to express her personality: classic, elegant and inventive. She proves it with this “Sunburst” or “Sun” brooch, which is one of the flagship jewels of her personal collection, and whose story is just as amazing as that of her owner.
London, 1961. John Fitzgerald Kennedy is invited by Elizabeth II and Prince Philip for a state visit. Elected president a few months ago, the 43-year-old Democrat is honored to be received by the queen on the European continent. His wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, and her sister-in-law Caroline Lee Bouvier accompany him on this journey. If the President of the United States is on a formal visit, the two sisters drive through town where they shop. At Warski’s in London’s trendy West End, Jackie came across a vintage sun brooch set with diamonds.
The only problem is probably its exorbitant cost: the equivalent of $100,000. With more business savvy than her bank account, the first lady manages to trade the coveted item for diamond leaf brooches given as a wedding present by her in-laws, Joe and Rose Kennedy. In order not to offend them, she takes care to order exact replicas before returning to Washington. Upon her return to the United States, Jackie Kennedy put her discovery away and only released it a year later, for a very special occasion.
The tiara of the First Lady
This evening in April 1962, the presidential couple received the Shah of Iran and Empress Farah at a reception. Jackie knows the immensity of the Shabanou’s treasures and wishes to impress her guest. But how can it compete with Harry Winston’s seven-emerald tiara of the Empress of Iran when she has only a few pearl necklaces and discreet earrings? Jackie then remembers the sun brooch and gets the idea to pin it in her hair, a nod to the Empress’s tiara.
Beneath the gold of the Iranian embassy in Washington, the first lady is adorable. Her powder pink dress by Christian Dior but above all her jewel that glitters on top of her chignon caused a sensation. So much enthusiasm that a month later, on May 11, 1962, she wore exactly the same dress to match her brooch, during a dinner in honor of the French Minister of Culture André Malraux.
Jacqueline Kennedy never goes out without her “Sun” pin. However, a month later she restored it to its original function, pinning it to the bodice of her Oleg Cassini-designed strapless blue silk gown at a state dinner in Mexico City. As a sign of fate, one of the last appearances of the jewel occurred in April 1963, seven months before the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The first lady wore it again in her hair for a gala in honor of Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg.
Since November 1963, widow of the President of the United States, Jackie has only worn her brooch sporadically (except in the 1980s, in a Parisian restaurant). As if from that tragic event her sun had disappeared. Years later, it was on her daughter Caroline Kennedy that “Sunburnt” made a notable comeback, in 2009 and then in 2012, during the Annual Kennedy Center Honors. When a journalist recognizes the jewel and asks her daughter the question, she replies with a simple “my mother gave it to me”. Replicated by various jewelers and despite several auctions of Jackie Kennedy’s personal effects, the original brooch ultimately remained in the family, as a treasured heirloom.
