How to Dress Like JFK Jr., According to the Costume Designer Behind Love Story

While Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's minimalism has dominated the conversation around FX's Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, the show's costume designer Rudy Mance has also sparked a menswear moment built around Paul Anthony Kelly's portrayal of JFK Jr.

Mance has described the character as "one of the original New York male hipsters," a man who wore sportswear with the ease of someone raised in suits, and suits with the recklessness of someone who plainly didn't care what anyone thought. The resulting look — an Armani jacket over hiking boots, a backward baseball cap on a bike, a navy blazer thrown over a plain white T-shirt — maps neatly onto where menswear is already heading in 2026: toward quality, restraint and longevity over logos. Building the look from scratch starts simply, with a navy blazer, a clean knit, straight trousers and a good loafer forming the foundation, before layering in the mix-and-match irreverence that made the real JFK Jr.'s style so enduring.

Wear the loafers with denim. Wear the blazer with chinos and white trainers. Let the shirt collar sit open when the jacket suggests otherwise.

It's a masterclass in effortlessness that, three decades on, still photographs as fresh as ever.