All The Details About Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's Stunning Engagement Ring

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's style is rife with enduring charm because it emerged from something more personal than just a trend cycle. It's the style of someone with a developed, intuitive sense of taste. So, it's not surprising that her engagement ring was equally as elegant, but also very unusual. Rather than a dramatically sized focal stone, like those on the royal's gorgeous engagement rings, Bessette Kennedy wore something subtler: a platinum eternity band of smaller diamonds and sapphire stones. Bessette Kennedy's marriage to John F. Kennedy Jr. was plagued by red flags, but at least the ring was flawless.

The design was inspired by John's mother, Jackie Kennedy, who was a formidable fashion icon in her own right. It seems John wanted to pay tribute to his mother in his proposal. Still, given that Bessette Kennedy's style was more minimal than that of the one-time First Lady, there's a funny logic to the fact that John likely modeled the piece on Jackie's diamond and emerald "swimming ring," a more modest alternative to her glamorous 40-carat Harry Winston diamond she received from her second husband, Aristotle Onassis. Jackie reportedly wore it in the pool, hence the name.

The restrained design suited Bessette Kennedy's chic and simple style, especially since she wore little jewelry. "She wasn't much of a jewelry person," Sunita Kumar Nair, author of CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion told JCK. "She didn't really like wearing earrings or rings particularly. She felt that her engagement ring was even a little too showy, according to her."

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's marriage to John F. Kennedy Jr. might have been hotly anticipated at the time, but the bride didn't let the tradition or trends overwhelm the originality of her wedding vision. Instead, Bessette Kennedy decided to forgo the enormous confectionery ball gowns of the era and got married in a sleek, bias-cut Narcisco Rodriguez slip dress. The look turned the wedding dress industry upside down. "Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's dress undoubtedly changed the course of bridal: how unexpected it felt in that moment, and how it ultimately became a modern classic," bridal designer Danielle Frankel told Vogue.

As with so many of Bessette Kennedy's outfits that are still on trend today, the wedding look doesn't appear dated because it reflects her personal style rather than the fashion trends of that moment. It's the fashion of someone with total confidence in her own taste, rather than a forced attempt at looking right. "I think that why no one has been able to replicate her even though many have tried is the undone nature of her chicness," observed one Reddit user. "True effortlessness."