"Love Story" Costumer Used Same Exact Fabric to Recreate Carolyn Bessette Kennedy&x27;s 1996 Wedding Dress Michelle LeeFri, March 6, 2026 at 8:20 PM UTC 0 Carolyn Bessette Kennedy in 1999 (left); Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette and Paul Anthony Kelly as John F. Kennedy Jr. in 'Love Story' (right)Credit: Evan Agostini/Liaison/Getty ; FX The sixth episode of Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette centers around the couple's private nuptials on Cumberland Island, Ga.
"Love Story" Costumer Used Same Exact Fabric to Recreate Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's 1996 Wedding Dress
Michelle LeeFri, March 6, 2026 at 8:20 PM UTC
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Carolyn Bessette Kennedy in 1999 (left); Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette and Paul Anthony Kelly as John F. Kennedy Jr. in 'Love Story' (right)Credit: Evan Agostini/Liaison/Getty ; FX -
The sixth episode of Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette centers around the couple's private nuptials on Cumberland Island, Ga.
Their wedding is often remembered for Carolyn's Narciso Rodriguez wedding dress
Love Story costumer Rudy Mance revealed to InStyle what went into recreating the iconic bridal look Sarah Pidgeon wears for her portrayal of Carolyn
The latest episode of Love Story reimagines the famous yet elusive wedding of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.
Titled "The Wedding," the sixth episode sees the couple tying the knot on Cumberland Island, Ga. after making deliberate efforts to plan the ultra-private ceremony. Of course, a part of the storyline is the bride's Narciso Rodriguez wedding dress, which costumer Rudy Mance put "a lot of detective work" into recreating.
In a new interview with InStyle, Mance revealed that he and his team ended up finding the exact fabric used to make Carolyn's original gown. "One of my assistants had found out through our research that Narciso had gone to B&J, which is a very iconic fabric store here in New York that still exists. So, we went and talked to them, hoping they had a record." When they were able to confirm that the store still had the decades-old swatch on hand, they found the still-running mill in Europe to produce the same fabric, in the same color.
Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette and Paul Anthony Kelly in "The Wedding"Credit: FX
Aside from hue, Mance had to get the fit spot-on. Carolyn famously asked Rodriguez for a bias-cut silhouette, which led to the impeccable fit of the design. Courtier Anna Light constructed the dress in Philadelphia and traveled with it between fittings with actress Sarah Pidgeon, who plays the fashion publicist in the show. Three exact replicas were made to stick to recounts of Carolyn's last-minute wardrobe malfunction (in JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography by RoseMarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil it's revealed that she had to be sewn into the dress before walking down the aisle).
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Gogo Ferguson, who designed the Kennedys' gold wedding bands from the rib of a rattlesnake, remembers that the dress took "an hour" to get on because it was so fitted. "It was like pouring cream over her body. She looked like a calla lily. Narciso was trying to sort of sew her into the dress. We were all in such a hurry 'cause we were so late to get to the church."
Any adornments were also replicated to a tee, shares InStyle. The outlet reports that Love Story's costume team commissioned Carolyn's exact accessories, including the veil and gloves, and Manolo Blahnik shoes.
Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette in 'Love Story'Credit: FX
The wedding dress may be remembered as so very Carolyn, but Rodriguez previously told Vogue in 2018 that he presented several designs before she decided on the slip dress. "I had given her a couple of ideas, she thought one was too architectural, she pulled the neckline down and a dress was born." With a history as close friends since meeting during their days at Calvin Klein, Rodriguez gifted the dress to Carolyn, even though it cost $40,000 per The New York Times.
During an appearance on the PBS series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in October 2020, Rodriguez said that he never considered the public reaction to his design when he agreed to make the dress. He recalled, "I made that wedding dress with so much love for the person that I loved most in the whole world, and I never viewed it as a press event."
on People
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Source: Entertainment
Published: March 6, 2026 at 03:45PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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