Editor's note:
Mari Rodríguez Ichaso has been a contributor to Vanidades magazine for several decades.
She is a specialist in fashion, travel, gastronomy, art, architecture and entertainment, a film producer and a style columnist for CNN en Español.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely his own.
Read more opinion pieces at cnne.com/opinion
(CNN Spanish) --
It is fascinating to see how in 2022 the 'Jackie O style' is still relevant and as fashionable as it was decades ago.
His favorite vacation spot – the island of Capri – is hotter than ever and celebrities are eagerly visiting.
Gucci has re-done its famous 'Jackie Bag' - worn and made popular by the iconic First Lady!
Her striped t-shirt with white jeans is a look of the moment.
The very innocent, sleeveless pastel A-line gown—which Jackie wore with an off-the-shoulder cardigan seen in every collection.
Her style legacy shaped her fashion, and today's stars—from Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton to Amal Clooney, Katie Holmes, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow—wear Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis-esque outfits quite often.
Impressive influence on fashion.
We remember this because this past July 28, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis would have turned 93 years old.
Can you imagine Jackie at that advanced age?
I don't... But this never happened —and nobody imagined it for a second— because the former first lady of the United States, looking regal, full of life and with her usual great style, died at the age of 64 in New York in 1994 , from 'Non-Hodgkin lymphoma', a rare blood cancer.
And it was quite a surprise.
Today I want to talk to you about the Jackie who has remained in an important front row in the collective memory around the world.
And it is curious that even the youngest have learned about her, her legacy and are fascinated by her history.
And I would therefore like to tell you about 'that mysterious, very private —and incomparable style icon— Jackie Kennedy that I knew.
Living in New York I saw her many times.
So many!
At parties, art shows, ballet performances, restaurants—such as The Russian Tea Room and Orsini's, very fashionable at the time.
And even walking (very romantically by the way) down Fifth Avenue one night, arm in arm with her second husband, the Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis! !
That night they came from dinner at La Cote Basque and went to the Olympic Tower, the tower owned by Onassis —and when they reached the height of St. Patrick's Cathedral, my ex and Onassis, who smoked two cigars, shared a knowing smile! !
That was very funny.
It was also funny when we both arrived at the same time in the lobby of the small building on 57th Street where Carolina Herrera (who had been dressing Jackie for years) had her atelier —and we shared the smallest elevator.
She turned when we got on and spoke to me —with that little girl's voice that surprised me— telling me “I imagine we're both going to Carolina's parade”…I nodded and we both smiled… And as Carolina herself told me later, "When the elevator door opened and I saw you talking to Jackie, it was a big surprise!"
But that day was not the last encounter — because Jackie lived at 1040 Fifth Avenue — one block from Marymount, my daughter's school — and when I took the girl very early in the morning, I saw Jackie go for a walk to the Park Central, and I remember that he did it very fast, “power walking” style.
With jeans, a pullover and her big sunglasses.
And so she escaped (or not?) The lens of the famous paparazzo Ron Galella, who chased her day and night.
A last meeting and without a doubt the most significant?
When we met at a grand gala in honor of India at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York - to which I had been invited by Ayesha, the Maharani of Jaipur, whose memoir had been republished years before by Jackie, since they were good friends.
I had interviewed the Maharani then, about the new edition of the book and since we had liked each other a lot, I had spent a whole day accompanying her around Manhattan (I think she sweetly 'used' me as a 'lady-in-waiting') —and we had become “ insta-amugas”, resulting in the invitation to visit her in India and that night to the exclusive Gala—and my conversation with Jackie!
Well, short conversation, like those you have at parties, but that revealed to me a soft and frivolous woman on the outside, but strong as steel on the inside.
A woman to take up arms, who knew how to handle her "allure" and her incomparable style like an expert.
Seductive and at the same time cold.
A rare way of being.
We talked about Ayesha, about the book, about Jaipur – and I noticed that, although she was following my conversation, she was 500% aware of everything around her.
Of the paparazzi who photographed us, of the people who looked at her, of everything... And that she really wasn't very interested in what we shared -although Ayesha came to join us and showed her sudden interest in me- and I good that we had passed through New York.
Jackie had a kind of 'radar' and I noticed that she would open her mouth and move her head at the exact angle when she was portrayed.
Very interesting!
She was a woman like few I have ever met.
She knew 100% who she was and what she wanted.
She was dressed in Valentino and was with her lover of many years, the millionaire diamond merchant Maurice Tempelsman, who obviously had a crush on her—and was married at the time.
(The wife kicked him out of the house when she couldn't take it anymore, as her infidelity with Jackie was blatant.)
Tempelsman was good and very loyal to Jackie and not only multiplied the fortune that he had inherited from the Kennedys and later Onassis, but also accompanied her until the end of her life.
It was the rock of her.
Although everyone has always said that her only great love in her life was her husband, President John F Kennedy, who had made her suffer a lot with her known infidelities.
I had quite a bit of conversation that night with Tempelsman, who seemed uninterested in no one, and he was very natural and friendly.
She believed that I was very friendly with the Maharani and she treated me very frankly and friendly.
He was a low-key Jewish businessman who didn't belong to the jet set world of those years, and Jackie's glamor had him obviously dazzled.
They were together for 14 years from 1980 to 1994.
After the death of Jackie - who arranged her last days meticulously, in great detail, and all her best friends came to say goodbye to her, while music of Gregorian chants was heard throughout the apartment - her departure was widely noted in New York. .
She was our queen of the most perfect personal style.
And a mysterious woman who never gave an interview that revealed her deepest, most genuine feelings.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis guarded her privacy zealously—and her friends tell me that in private she was very funny, full of wit, if not a little sneering, that she liked to imitate the voices of well-known characters—and that she adored her children Caroline and John Jr.
I never met this Jackie, but I did notice a little of this teasing —of that somewhat mischievous and funny character— during that brief encounter in the small Carolina Herrrera elevator.
