‘Love Story’s’ biggest challenge? Winning over Carolyn Bessette Kennedy fans.

In the 1990s, before smartphones and social feeds, I’d call my best friend on a landline to talk about the latest photos or videos of Carolyn Bessette and John F. Kennedy Jr.

We’d see them in print publications or on nightly tabloid shows. We’d obsess over her outfit (that red Prada coat, those vintage 517s), talk about where in Manhattan they were (Bubby’s, out walking their dog Friday, a random ATM) and speculate about what was happening, ending our call by reviewing anything new we thought we’d learned.

In retrospect, the image of the Calvin Klein publicist who married American royalty was shaped almost entirely by distance. Before Instagram, Bessette Kennedy was known through a finite set of photos — and no interviews, just a handful of soundbites.

As women lined up to mirror her hair color (“CBK blonde”) and minimalist ’90s style, we had barely heard her speak. Fans and the media filled in the gaps, imagining everything about the woman voted “Ultimate Beautiful Person” in high school and People’s Sexiest Man Alive’s life together, from the decor of their N. Moore Street loft to how they spent their Martha’s Vineyard weekends.

When the couple died suddenly in 1999, the tragedy froze them in time, sustaining Bessette Kennedy’s unknowability. However many books or television adaptations — including Ryan Murphy’s Love Story on FX — attempt to re-create their life together, it will never be in her words.

Three decades later, that scarcity has preserved her image with unusual clarity, allowing a new generation to study, replicate and project meaning onto a woman we will never fully know. I spoke with modern brides and Instagram tribute account creators to understand why she still resonates.

The bridal blueprint

When she got married on Sept. 21, 1996, Carolyn Bessette chose a slip dress made by her friend Narciso Rodriguez — a stark contrast to the embellished gowns of the era. The candlelit ceremony on Cumberland Island, Ga., matched the restraint. The look became shorthand for modern elegance.

Women who were babies when the headline-making wedding took place have since embraced that aesthetic as their own.

Stephanie Covington, 34, is one of them. She says Bessette Kennedy was her muse when she got married in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2019.

“I knew the venue, beach, mountainous topography and backdrop would speak for itself,” she tells Yahoo. “So I wanted to emulate a style with a simple, understated look — and that was CBK.”

She chose a deep-V Vera Wang sheath.

“​​I love how iconic she was without even trying,” Covington says. “Even when just walking her dog in Tribeca, she evoked downtown chic. To me, she will always be the ultimate cool girl.”

For her 2023 Copenhagen wedding, Georgina Eklöf-Grey Rage, also 34, initially hoped to replicate a black Yohji Yamamoto look Bessette Kennedy wore in 1998. She ultimately chose a vintage Céline slip dress, adding touches like lily of the valley, gloves and a simple veil.

She was drawn to the timelessness. “I wanted to select something that wasn’t going to age,” she explains. “That’s where a lot of Carolyn’s looks sit: They’re 30 years old and still feel super relevant.”

Data from Pinterest, where brides-to-be curate wedding boards (and others simply search for style inspiration), shows that 83% of the people searching for Bessette Kennedy in the last year are between the ages of 18 and 34.

The relatable myth

Eklöf-Grey Rage says that, as a young fashion buyer, she went to glamorous parties, but “I definitely didn’t meet a Kennedy.” To her, an interesting part of CBK’s story is that, before she married the founder of George magazine, she was a “normal person.” (Albeit one dating a Calvin Klein model.)

For Kristen Rylander, a New York City realtor in her mid-30s, Bessette Kennedy reads less as royalty and more as an aspirational New York archetype.

Rylander fell down the rabbit hole a decade ago, “intrigued by the girl in the pictures who was always by John’s side.” Yet, the more she dug, “the more elusive she became.”

“I think she resonates with me and other women, especially in New York, because we can all see a bit of ourselves in Carolyn,” she says. “She was a regular girl who moved to NYC to work hard, make a name for herself and fall in love. She did all that — and looked fabulous doing it.”

That relatability makes Rylander feel a bit protective when it comes to seeing CBK’s life on the small screen. She plans to take a day off from work to watch Love Story.

“I hope it tells their story in the most honest and authentic way possible, while still honoring and respecting them,” she says. “They were imperfect people who were taken too soon.”

Guarding the image

Long before Love Story, Bessette Kennedy’s image was being carefully curated online.

Instagram accounts devoted to her style — examining her most iconic looks, sourcing pieces she wore and resurfacing quotes about her — have become informal archives, projecting carefully selected photos.

Jack Sehnert was in his mid-20s when he launched @CarolynBessette nearly 11 years ago. Now serving as Steve Madden’s vice president of design for international handbags, the New Yorker says Bessette has been an “endless inspiration” for him.

“From design school to my first job, she was always on a mood board,” he tells Yahoo. “Once I entered the industry, I was mentored by designers who knew her, and I became fascinated by her based on the fiery and funny stories I heard. She was so much more than ‘John Jr.’s wife.’”

With only an estimated 15 to 20 widely circulated looks, he notes, Bessette’s influence on fashion remains outsized. Sehnert hopes Murphy’s series “does right by Carolyn.”

Jacquelyn J., who remembers pinning pages from Bessette’s posthumous 1999 Vanity Fair cover to her bedroom wall, started @Carolyn_iconic in 2020 to save photos of Bessette’s style “just for me.” Her account grew from there, she tells Yahoo.

Speaking to Yahoo ahead of the show’s Feb. 12 premiere, the 35-year-old admitted she was initially worried Love Story, overseen by costume designer Rudy Mance and a team of nine fashion experts, wouldn’t “get it right,” both stylistically and narratively. To her, Bessette’s look was “effortless and obtainable,” yet she carried a sense of “mystique.” Her skepticism softened after the trailer, though she says she’s reserving judgment until she watches the series.

The California-based creator behind @The_twomrs, who asked not to use her name, began her account covering Bessette Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy in 2023, after a deep dive into the political family’s history through books and documentaries.“I went back so far, and tried to learn everything,” she says.

She’s blunt about early teaser images from Love Story, telling Yahoo the fashion seemed “hideous” and “rushed.” After all, she was in her 20s in the ‘90s — and her style overlapped with Bessette Kennedy’s.

“My friends and I … paired [vintage] Levi’s with a white dress shirt or T-shirt,” she says, referencing another famous Bessette Kennedy look. “This is how we dressed [in L.A.]. … I still wear them today.”

While the trailer was an improvement, she still questions the timeline’s accuracy, citing a blue headscarf Pidgeon wears stateside as Bessette, when she had only been photographed in it on her 1996 honeymoon in Turkey.

At the same time, she sees value in the renewed interest — but with a caveat.

“It’s great for this new generation to learn about who John and Carolyn really were,” she says, but viewers should “read books on them [and] not go based 100% off the series.”

She also suggests that “the new Gen Zs obsessed” with Bessette’s style should do their homework there too — and trace further back to who influenced Bessette’s style. She notes that Jackie Kennedy, Jane Birkin, Lauren Hutton, Lee Radziwill, Kate Moss and the ’90s models are just some of those who inspired Bessette.

As for the show, will she watch? “Yes. Will I hate-watch? Probably, yes,” she says.