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50 Years of First Lady Fashion: How Jackie, Nancy & Michelle Defined American Style

For the past half-century, America's first ladies have led the nation's shifting attitudes toward style. We present a look back at the fashion that ruled the White House through the last 10 presidencies (12 Photos)

Fiorella Valdesolo on Jan 11, 2013 at 12:28PM

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50 Years of First Lady Fashion: How Jackie, Nancy & Michelle Defined American Style

Art Rickerby/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

First Lady Jackie Kennedy: 1961-1963

Long before Michelle Obama established her reputation as a fashion force to be reckoned with, the reigning queen of First Lady style was undoubtedly Jackie Kennedy. Nee Bouvier, she was born into, by all estimations, a privileged life (her dad was a stockbroker, her mother, heir to a real estate fortune), which meant polish and glamour were terms she was quite familiar with.

Though Jackie was a longtime devotee of elegant French designers like Chanel and Givenchy, when her husband John F. Kennedy made a bid for the presidency, she began, after much encouragement, to buy American. So began her fabled collaboration with designer Oleg Cassini, the man responsible for crafting (with a lot of guidance from Jackie), her most iconic looks.

Signature: Multi-strand pearl necklace, white gloves, cinched waists, pillbox hats and oversized sunglasses.