The women who dress their boyfriends as John Kennedy Jr. on TikTok

“Transforming my husband’s style into JFK Jr from Love Story” is the title of the video in which Meg, a 32-year-old American, grabbed attention on social media with the trend and the tone of the moment: 27 years after the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette on July 18, 1999, the couple is everywhere again. In her post, she portrays her husband as the closest possible version of “America’s Prince,” and the 80,000 views it received gave her a clue: she had hit the mark. Her clip became a miniseries and now features four episodes in which she dresses her partner in wide trousers, chunky knit sweaters, and on-backward caps. The following post alone racked up more than a million views on Instagram.

Meghan isn’t the only one. For months now, TikTok and Instagram algorithms have been endlessly looping video after video on how to emulate Carolyn Bessette’s style (now the new digital muse of 1990s New York style — people are even analyzing how she styled her hair), but also clips that dissect the lifestyle of the son of the most charismatic U.S. president, and among them all, a niche genre has emerged that is spreading at breakneck speed.

“I’ve brought my very own JFK Jr. along as my ultimate accessory,” jokes content creator Kelsey Kotzur in a video posted on Instagram, in which she’s dressed as Bessette on her honeymoon in Turkey and her husband wears a sporty look similar to Kennedy’s.

It’s clear that a husband who looks like John Jr. is a hot commodity on social media right now: “Carolyn Bessette Kennedy isn’t the only figure from the [FX television] series [Love Story] whose style is currently experiencing a revival — we’re also entering a full-fledged era of John F. Kennedy Jr.-core,” writes the American magazine Vogue.

And what is this rising style like? Relaxed, effortless, with a certain disheveled quality that only a charisma like Kennedy’s can pull off. As if he hadn’t spent more than five seconds thinking about what to wear. We’ve all seen those paparazzi photos of him strolling through Tribeca: baggy jeans and a fitted vest, three-piece suits that looked casual on him, pleated dress pants, a cap worn backward. Recreating an aura through a uniform of clothing isn’t something that usually works — just ask the show’s early outfits, which set social media ablaze because they looked more like costumes, and which were later tweaked until they even nailed Carolyn’s exact shade of blonde. In fact, the catch here is that JFK Jr.’s style came precisely from not seeking style. That’s probably why the TikTok tutorials aren’t quite convincing: neither are the ones where “New York guys are looking for their Carolyns” (as one TikTok user posted), nor those who simply put together an ad hoc look with the hashtag #outfitoftheday. Nor do those who enter a look-alike contest to see who wins the title of “perfect clone” (this actually happened last spring in New York’s Washington Square Park).

In any case, if, after studying images of the real John-John, you revisit the fall 2026 clothing collections (which were presented last September), you can’t help but spot flashes of the JFK Jr. style. Wide 1990s-style jeans, khaki trousers with a crease, sweaters draped over the shoulders: on the runways of Celine, Giorgio Armani and Louis Vuitton there is a polished yet casual look.

In 2026, in New York, you might run into men wearing dress pants and a cap, or a blazer while riding a bike. For now, thankfully, wide headbands aren’t all that common. These seem to be the one accessory reserved for Kennedy — perhaps because we’re all aware that no one else can pull them off and still come out with their charisma intact. In any case, if John Jr.’s appeal lay in his apparent lack of effort in projecting such magnetism, it seems unlikely that buying clothes modeled after him will manage to replicate it.

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