 |
| Nicole Mary Kelby, photo by Ann Marsden |
Nicole Mary Kelby is the author of the new novel The Pink Suit, which tells the story of the famous suit worn by Jacqueline Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Kelby's other books include White Truffles in Winter and In the Company of Angels. She is based in St. Paul, Minnesota; the United Kingdom; and Ireland.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for The Pink Suit?
A: By accident. I was Googling Chanel, and I ran into two
lines from blogs. One said the pink suit was Chanel, and one said it wasn’t. I
didn’t know what the pink suit was!
I started reading, and there was a little line in there that
Mike Naughton, a circus master, said that his Aunt Kate did the finish work for
the pink suit. I’ve been a journalist all my life, and as a reporter, you just
go, “Huh? Excuse me?”
I called him. He told me three interesting things: That his
Aunt Kate had never met Mrs. Kennedy; [his aunt] was a backroom girl. He said
Aunt Kate took patterns out of the trash to make clothes for Mike’s mom; in
Inwood [their neighborhood in New York], they called her “little Jackie.” It
was a double-edged comment.
Third, after [his Aunt Kate] saw the suit in Dallas, she was
never the same. Seeing the suit in that context broke her heart. I called my
agent, who said, It’s a nice cocktail story but you can’t write a novel about a
suit!...
That charming cocktail story soon became a novel. I am not a
seamstress. My mother-in-law sews on our buttons. I thought, What have I gotten
myself into?
I found a friend who had worked for Ralph Lauren. I had
interviewed Karl Lagerfeld. I wasn’t a total idiot when it came to fashion. I
started going through the process of learning about couture. I went to Inwood,
New York....I went to Ireland, I visited where Aunt Kate would have been from.
It’s really funny how this book has expanded my horizons as
a writer, and also about what it means to be an American. [Mrs. Kennedy did so
much] to re-envision for Americans who they were. The Eisenhowers weren’t
exactly cutting edge….
[From writing a previous book,] I learned about the need to
include minute detail….I would have loved to do a nonfiction book, but there
was so much conflicting information, it was impossible. So many people made the
suit!
Q: How did you decide on the right balance for the
historical and fictional elements of the novel?
A: I don’t know if one really decides or if it’s just an
innate rhythm. I put in every fact. … This is such a sacred garment; it’s part
of our cultural history. If I could bring depth to this—people lose follicles
all the time, and all these people [who worked on the suit], their DNA was all
over it. If [the assassination] was shocking for all of us, for them it was
doubly so….
Q: What made Jackie Kennedy such a fashion icon, and who
else, in your opinion, has made such an impact since then?
A: Look at the time: there were [other] fashion icons. Babe
Paley was more fashionable than Jackie Kennedy. But the reason Jackie Kennedy
stuck is that it was the golden age of newspapers, of newspaper photographs,
and television news. Up until this point, we didn’t have someone who knew how
to wield the media.
She had written an essay as a young girl—she told Vogue that
she wanted to be the art director of the 20th century. And that’s
exactly what she did. She understood that the media was powerful. …she had
things photographed from all different angles so it looked perfect.
Her clothes really said that, and they made us dream
ourselves to be that person. As a nation, we really started seeing ourselves as
can-do: What can we do for our country?
She was gorgeous, but she knew how to use the media.
Princess Diana came along, and realized through trial and error, you learn the
hard way about what you do and don’t do. In the end, the paparazzi killed her.
She was conscious that she had the common touch and that the [royal] family was
out of touch. They are better now; the Queen is tweeting.
That is one of the interesting things [Diana]] did—to pick
up the mantle of Jackie Kennedy, of understanding how the media works….
Jackie Kennedy covered [Queen Elizabeth’s coronation]. She
did drawings and cartoons. The Queen’s gown was a white gown; she wanted to be
perceived as a bride.
When [the Queen] went to Ireland recently, she came with a sense of
reconciliation. At the first event, she wore a white gown: Remember me? I was
your bride. She could have worn anything….Clothes can be political and
impactful. It’s hard to do that because there’s so much media these days. It was
a beautiful gesture.
When Anne Boleyn went to the gallows, under her gray smock
she wore red, the color of martyrs. She was all about clothes. Anne Boleyn was
the original “let’s figure out what to wear to make an impact.”
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
No comments:
Post a Comment