Jackie's Pink Suit: Off Limits Until 2103

Kennedy family restricts public viewing until then
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 15, 2013 3:45 PM CST
Updated Nov 17, 2013 7:11 AM CST
Jackie's Pink Suit: Off Limits Until 2103
In this Nov. 22, 1963, file photo, Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as president Jacqueline Kennedy stands at his side in Dallas.   (AP Photo/White House, Cecil Stoughton, File)

You've no doubt seen the image of Jackie Kennedy's bloodstained pink suit countless times, maybe even this week alone. But it's a safe bet that nobody reading this will see the real thing in his lifetime. The New York Times reports that the Kennedy family has decided to keep the Chanel suit from public viewing until 2103. It's currently inside a vault at the National Archives. In stories about the suit, both the Times and Texas Public Radio recount Jackie's famous line when it was suggested she change clothes after her husband's assassination: "No, let them see what they've done."

Why so much intrigue? The Times' Cathy Horyn puts it this way: "If there is a single item that captures both the shame and the violence that erupted that day, and the glamour and artifice that preceded it, it is Jackie Kennedy’s bloodstained pink suit, a tantalizing window on fame and fashion, her allure and her steely resolve, the things we know about her and the things we never quite will." (Click for the full story, or to read about the famous flubbed bugle note during JFK's funeral.)

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