What Would Jackie Do?: An Inspired Guide to Distinctive Living - Shelly Branch

Almost from the moment she made her debutante turn at Hammersmith Farm in 1947, it was obvious that the elegant sylph known simply as 8Jackiee possessed something enviable, intangible.

A true 8American Idol,e she represented a standard that many women have tried to copy, from her clothes to her gestures. But it was her cloak of unusual dignity that earns her the greatest admiration. You canft help but want to be like her. Who can resist such effortless, multilingual poise? People the world over have long marveled at how she handled the jagged, painful turns of the Kennedy legacy and the Onassis years. And how, beneath those iconic pillboxes, she never seemed to sweat.

Which brings us to the point of this book. Dozens of works have sought to portray the 8reale Jackie, and fix her mark on events historic.

Yet no book has applied Jackiefs day-to-day philosophies to your life, or extrapolated her timeless coping skills for the twenty-first-century woman. With the publicfs interest in all things Kennedy hardly abated, it seems appropriate=even necessary=to now view Jackie through a more modern prism. To connect the dots of her richly textured life and distill them into a practical, instructive guide.

Over the last four decades, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis has attracted almost as many writers as fans. Her public life as a young mother in the White House, followed by more Garbo-like periods in Greece and New York, continue to fascinate people who knew only her photograph. Her allure, and her example, go well beyond the printed page: When New Yorkfs Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed her White House finery in a 2001 costume exhibit, it attracted an international sell-out crowd. And two Sothebyfs auctions featuring items from her estate and her homes yielded dizzying bids.

Still, the somber words and the artifacts are not enough. We are ever fascinated by this private woman=our royal equivalent=who will always be the pinnacle of beauty and wisdom. What Would Jackie Do? explores the alchemy of Jackiefs timeless living arts to show what it takes to be a creature of true substance today. The first book of its kind, it aims her famous gaze in the readersf direction through advice, insight, and humor (Jackie did, after all, possess quite the wicked wit).

At a time when classic smarts have gone missing in our fractured popular culture, this book is meant to serve as the print equivalent of having Jackie herself analyze=indeed, make over=your life. What Would Jackie Do? will show you how to be steely yet soign+e=a tonic that the Jennifer Anistons and J.Los (starlets with only fleeting fame)=crave. With the Elegant One as your personal advisor, you can acquire some of that Jackie O magic, be it of the heart, the mind, or the home.

Youfll know, for example, when a designer is worth his couture costs, and when you are better off with a good knockoff. Youfll learn to deftly approach everything from mating rituals to office politics with as much savoir faire as Jackie did in her time. If she could make guests both plain and privileged feel at ease in the White House, how can you do the same in your own home? As for her famously strict and successful child-rearing ways, how might you translate and apply similar methods? And how can you interpret for your own purposes her complex ability to handle powerful men?

By definition, this is a work that must straddle the lines of history and myth, observation and advice, reverence and irreverence. We also suggest what Jackie might do today in a world where the rules of social conduct are ever more fluid. Would she e-mail thank-you notes? Use a BlackBerry to deliver bad news? Consign old clothes? Try Pilates? Withhold sex until the second date or fifth? Fly the kids first class or coach?

What Would Jackie Do? takes its cues from dozens of original interviews, as well as biographies, historical references and documents, articles, oral histories, photographs, and other previously published works. As a reality check, let us underscore two key points. First, Jackie, for all her gemlike facets, was hardly without flaws. To that end, this book will help you understand what she knew all too well: How best to transform your weaknesses into strengths. Second, most women lack the financial resources and/or social connections to lead the life that she did. With that in mind, we reveal how even Jackie cut corners and pinched a few pennies.

In summary, this book is designed to give you a solid yet whimsical foundation from which to draw inspiration and advice. To compel you to ask, when confronted with matters sartorial, ethical, practical: What Would Jackie Do?

Chapter 1
Daily Bred:
Exude Grace in Everything You Do
8A beautiful gesture is really a very rare thing . . .e
=JBKO

Shall we dare to be . . . like her?

Itfs an alluring=and terrifying=idea. After all, Jackie O was the model for how to do practically everything right. There was the indestructible coif, chic whether windswept or tethered by a silk scarf. A whispery voice that could alternately charm, devastate, captivate. Even her physical carriage had an easy grace that seemed lit from within. Then, of course, there were the outfits=beaded bodices and A- line coats. They dazzled in the absence of colossal gems. The very image is enough to make us straighten our backs, pat our hair in place, and pull our beau a little bit closer.

And no wonder. Much that wefve seen and read about her is so reverent, distant, unattainable. But at a time when everything in our world is so brilliantly recherch+=from clothes and entertaining to manners and even language=what better opportunity to intrigue as if 8Jack-leene?

Perfection isnft the goal, of course. To transcend the ordinariness that Jackie so feared in youth means feasting on a diet of discipline and restraint=whether youfre into dungarees or Dior. As Jackie knew, fabulousness is a state of mind, something you harness day in and day out to neutralize the 8drearye things and people that threaten to drag you down.

OBSCURE YOUR EGO
TO REVEAL YOUR TRUE QUALITIES
It wonft, it canft, it mustnft always be about you. And even if you donft agree, youfd do well to at least pretend so some of the time. A substantive woman=and Jackie was nothing if not that=can check her hubris as easily as she does her evening wrap. Itfs always there, of course, but sometimes itfs better left in the background.

Shift the spotlight. Self-promoters, Jackie once said, 8really get my back up.e But because people tend to crave the limelight so much themselves, theyfll be thrown (and delighted) when you transfer some of the attention you command. Out for aperitifs with girlfriends? Insist that the cute guy in the opposite banquette is ogling one of them, not you. Tell your hairdresser that his splendid updo=not your fine form=drew gasps at the charity ball.

A master at shifting the spotlight, Jackie would playfully say to friends that the press 8must know youfre here!e when helicopters buzzed overhead. Even when the pressure was on, she knew to turn the focus away from herself. Once, when one of Jackiefs Doubleday authors=Tiffany design director John Loring=asked the editor to do a rare interview on his behalf for The New Yorker, Jackie at first agreed, but ultimately reneged by using a clever deflection technique. She told him, 8You donft really want me in that profile, because people will only remember me, and youfll just be forgotten completely.e

Overlook faux pas. You mustnft let the minor transgressions of others interrupt your daily flow=or block your precious chi. When people stumble with their words, their manners, or their wit, therefs just no need to take an emotional tumble. Jackie wouldnft give a damn if you said, 8I love your Gucci!e (if in fact she was wearing Pucci) or 8How was the bear hunt?e (when foxes were her thing).

To show how deftly Jackie handled such potentially embarrassing moments, a Doubleday colleague recalls how she stopped by his office to bum a book of matches. 8As I was handing it to her, I noticed it had a JFK memorial stamp on it,e he says. 8It was a fleeting moment, not more than a second.e Jackie didnft acknowledge any awkwardness. Ditto when interior decorator Mario Buatta came to dinner at her Fifth Avenue apartment and promptly split his pants on a chair. Without missing a beat, Jackie covered his back at the buffet.

Invoke othersf names. Need a favor? Need to curry favor? Put a brake on the number of times you say 8mee and 8I.e Youfll seem like less of an egomaniac=and more of a conciliator=if you pin your request on someone else. Jackie was known to use such harmless substitutions to get what she wanted, saying things like, 8Jack wants . . .e or 8My sister advises against,e or 8So-and-so wonft allow . . .e The less-than-overt method had its charms. 8She could impose that will upon people without their ever knowing it,e observed White House usher J. B. West.

Be a master flatterer. The point of advanced flattery is to remind someone how special he or she is, while also hinting at your utter dependency on them. This technique comes in handy when you are trying to salvage professional relationships or have something very specific to gain.

To snare a 8magnificente portrait of Benjamin Franklin for the White House, for example, Jackie rang up publishing magnate Walter H. Annenberg. She was ready to grovel, all right, but with an air of decorum and purpose: 8You, Mr. Annenberg, are the first citizen of Philadelphia,e she purred. 8And in his day, Benjamin Franklin was the first citizen of Philadelphia. And thatfs why, Mr. Annenberg, I thought of you. . . .e She went on to remind him that the White House=and America=desperately needed his tasteful acquisition. Are we at all surprised that he handed over the $250,000 painting by David Martin?

Dare to diss yourself. How to boost the comfort level when youfre mingling outside your own social set? Knock yourself down b...