For all of the lore surrounding John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, knowledge about their day-to-day lives remains rather finite.
Nevertheless, Love Story, FX’s new limited series which premiered February 12, attempts to bring fans into the most intimate spaces inhabited by the late political heir and his savvy, stylish wife. Inspired by Elizabeth Beller’s book, Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, the show chronicles one of the late twentieth century’s most magnetic couples, with Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon starring in the titular roles, and resurrects their version of ’90s New York City.
“There’s a lot of fairytale vernacular when you talk about the Kennedys,” production designer Alex DiGerlando tells AD, pointing to the persistent “Camelot” mythology that comes up in conversations surrounding the American political dynasty. The show leans into this: “The idea [here] is Carolyn being a common person who gets swept up in this world of royalty of sorts.”
Most of JFK Jr. and Bessette Kennedy’s courtship and subsequent marriage unfolded in New York as a new millennium approached. Design-wise, this era was marked by essential ’90s minimalism: classic colors, clean lines, crisp shapes. To recreate this on screen, DiGerlando and set decorator Lydia Marks focused on maintaining “a very controlled palette,” he explains. He tried to minimize clutter, but still honor the chaos of the Big Apple “as it was,” he says. “Probably the biggest thing that makes this show feel like it takes place in a different time period is that there [are no phones]. With the propping, we had to go back to, what did people do with their hands? What did people carry?”
Below, AD takes a look at how these spaces were brought to life for the screen—with some heavy inspiration from the real world.
Calvin Klein HQ
Calvin Klein’s uber-chic NYC headquarters anchors much of the show. Bessette Kennedy began her professional career working for the venerable American designer and stayed at the fashion house until 1996. “[He] was at the forefront of that look in the ’90s from a fashion sense, but also from the way he designed his workspace, his showrooms, and even the places he resided in,” says DiGerlando.
Most of Klein’s offices at the time were designed by Joe D’Urso, who was best known for his philosophy of high-tech minimalism, which brought industrial materials into non-industrial spaces. Calvin’s personal office featured metal industrial shelves and a round marble table with chrome wheeled legs, all of which stayed in his office throughout the ’90s. “A lot of the stuff in there, including the table, was designed by D’Urso, and we were able to find the exact match,” reveals DiGerlando.
Broadly speaking, the design team used Klein as “the keystone” for the show’s imagined version of ’90s New York. “For us, it was more about a tone and a glamorized version of the city that the action could take place in,” says DiGerlando.
JFK Jr.’s loft
That stripped-down sensibility is also translated to the show’s reimagining of JFK Jr.’s Tribeca loft. Exterior shots were filmed on-location at his actual building of 20 North Moore Street; interiors, meanwhile, were built on stage. “I think his space was described as a little fratty. We tried to make it more chic. We played with different surfaces [like] concrete countertops, glass brick, stainless steel, chromes,” says DiGerlando.
“He had this amazing, huge space. There are very limited photos. You can find a couple shots of a birthday celebration of his in that apartment, so you see little fragments.”
To figure out the architectural elements of the interiors, the production team closely studied real estate listings for apartments in the building; photos from Cooking for Madam, the 1998 cookbook and memoir by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's long-time cook Marta Sgubin; and stills from the 2011 film Newlyweds, which was set in Tribeca and directed by Edward Burns, who purchased the loft in 2000.
In the show’s version of the loft, there’s a subtly scalloped ceiling based on details from the real building. “Of course, we wanted a lofted space to capitalize on the depth and length of the apartment. Basically the footprint of the apartment is the same as the real apartment, but we added that lofted bedroom and living room,” says DiGerlando
Jackie Kennedy’s Fifth Avenue apartment
According to DiGerlando, Jackie Kennedy’s apartment “was a little bit of a puzzle” to figure out. He and his team referenced a Sotheby’s auction catalog as a guide (many of the former First Lady’s personal items had been previously auctioned off).
“Everything about that apartment is in direct opposition to the minimalist mantra of the show,” he says. “We knew the layout and recreated that pretty accurately.”
Notably, they “dialed down” the busyness of her aesthetic, which included clashing patterns, and selected items that followed their palette without distracting from the actors.
The Kennedy Compound
Later in the season, viewers will get a peek inside a fictionalized version of the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. Recreating the compound presented its own set of challenges, particularly when searching for the right seaside locale. The team landed on a waterfront house in Bellport, Long Island, which was easily accessible for the crew while appearing isolated.
Production swapped out some wallpaper and furniture to make it more in keeping with “the Kennedy aesthetic.” A flagpole, gate, and white pebble driveway were installed to finish the transformation. Every Hyannis Port scene was shot at this location, other than those in the dining room, which was built on stage for scheduling and logistical reasons. “While it wasn’t architecturally an exact match of the real thing, it had a stateliness and romance to it that fit our needs perfectly.”
