Ryan Murphy’s shows and online controversy have become inseparable, like peanut butter and jelly. You can’t imagine one of his series without a firestorm of discourse (see 2024’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story). Yet the vitriol direction at FX's American Love Story—his upcoming series about Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and loss—hit an even sharper note, all from a quick glimpse at the cast’s outfits.
The images—a pre-production necessity for checking lighting and color tests—showed Sarah Pidgeon as Bessette wearing a waxy camel leather coat and denim, with an empty Hermès Birkin bag dangling from her hand. Commenters ranging from amateur CBK style trackers to legacy fashion magazines analyzed every detail of her look and arrived at the same conclusion: this is not a proper homage to the late Calvin Klein publicist and American style icon. The jacket appears to be fast fashion, not from Bessette’s favorite designers like Yohji Yamamoto or Ann Demeulemeester. Her Birkin is the wrong size and looks barely broken in. Even her blonde shade was criticized in Vogue by Bessette-Kennedy's former colorist.
