Jackie O’s Charm Bracelet

Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis is certainly one of America’s classic style icons. From the pill-box hats to the simple sheath dress, she was always impeccably dressed. When I think of her personal style and her jewelry, I definitely come up with words such as classic, clean lines, and I’ll be honest…a bit conservative. Granted, she had to dress that way being the First Lady!

American Style Icon!
American Style Icon!

This is why I was so surprised when I recently came across this photo of one of her charm bracelets.

History on her wrist!
History on her wrist!

I love it! I would have expected her to have more of a classic collection of simple gold or silver charms. This bracelet actually exudes a more exotic, bohemian feel. I can only guess where each of the charms were collected from…perhaps the ivory horn from a trip to Africa? Or the bunch of grapes from a romantic trip to Tuscany? I’ll never know, but it really makes me look at this legend with new eyes. I think there was certainly a lot more to this lady than meets the eye.

6 thoughts on “Jackie O’s Charm Bracelet”

  1. She was amazing!! She also was an artist so maybe that free spirit manifested itself in this bracelet 🙂 So glamorous!!!

  2. wow – that surprised me as well! but i love it…my own charm bracelet is full like that…sometimes i think i’ve overloaded it…but now that i see this one…i’m thinking it is pretty perfect! and yes…they do tell a story of a life well lived…

  3. WOW… Thanks for sharing this bit of history. I’ve always admired this wonderful woman and now I want to look at her bracelet and dream of the places that were special to her.

  4. From what I remember from my books on charm bracelets, it was pretty common in the 50’s to have several different charm bracelets. This was definitely her travel bracelet! She also probably had the simple disks like we were all expecting. I know they are noisy, but I just love them!

  5. I visited Salvador,Bahia,Brazil in 2003 for a spiritual retreat. This bracelet is a penca da balanganda probably from the 19th century. These bracelets were popular amongst slave women in Brazil. Every year the slave’s owner would give them a gold charm to add to the bracelets. The tiny black fist charm is a figa a symbol the enslaved Africans used to ward off the evil eye. I picked up a silver balangandan bracelet while in Bahia though it’s not as elaborate as Jackie O’s.

Leave a Reply to elena daciuk Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *