‘Say Yes to the Dress’ Star Monte Durham to Talk Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis at Upcoming Event
The National First Ladies Library & Museum to host ‘Jackie & Monte–A Legacy of Style’ in Naples, Florida program.
Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was an icon of glamour, style and fashion. But, she was a woman, too. And, that’s something Monte Durham hopes others will take away from an upcoming event where the woman and tastemaker will be spotlighted through the lens of the self-proclaimed “greatest admirer” of the former first lady.
The event, “Jackie & Monte—A Legacy of Style,” features Durham, best known as the fashion director at Bridals for Lori, the bridal salon featured on the former TLC show “Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta,” and owner of the Alexandria, Virginia-based Salon Monte. Presented by the Canton, Ohio-based National First Ladies Library & Museum (NFLLM), the in-person event will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on February 27 at the luxurious Zazu Salon in Naples, Florida. Audience members will be treated to an intimate and engaging presentation that offers Durham’s personal reflections on the former first lady and what makes her style enduring.
David Lee, CEO and president of the NFLLM, says Durham has become an important advocate for the nonprofit by telling first ladies stories that include Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
“That is his expertise—Jackie and her fashion,” Lee says. “He sees the importance.”
For audience members, though, it might be Durham, a popular charismatic personality, that captivates with his lifelong love of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It all began, he tells East Wing Magazine in a recent phone interview, when he was in the sixth grade.
“I was surrounded by Jackie my entire life from an early age,” Durham says.
The West Virginia native goes on to explain how his mother emulated the former first lady’s style, even though she typically dressed in an “understated” way. After the tragic assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, Durham’s mother continued to dress and emulate Kennedy’s widow. A thinly-built woman who stood 5’8”, Durham fondly remembers how clothes fit his mother beautifully.
“And even though there were limited means when I was growing up, she always managed to look like, as my grandmother would say, ‘... like you just stepped out of a bandbox,’” he adds.
The influence Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had on Durham through his mother, in many ways, may have been inescapable. Upon her husband’s election, the young and stunning Mrs. Kennedy entered the White House as technology in the media evolved before a reliable and growing television audience and as print publications recognized her popularity with their readers. The Kennedy family, led by Joseph Kennedy, Sr., who had a close relationship with the American media, also managed the family with an eye toward promotion and fanfare, according to historian Karen M. Dunak in her book Our Jackie: Public Claims on a Private Life.
The story surrounding the former first lady fascinates Durham as much as it still does many Americans to this day.
“The real story, in my view, is she’s young, well-educated, [speaks] four languages, beautiful, [and] married a very wealthy, handsome guy,” Durham says, noting that upon entering the White House, Mrs. Kennedy, who underwent a cesarean delivery with their youngest son, John, Jr., days earlier, manages to tour the White House with outgoing First Lady Mamie Eisenhower.
“They walked the entire mansion and she just stepped out of the hospital,” Durham says. “That makes me cringe.”
It’s stories like that, adds Durham, that humanize Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
“You forget that she experienced things that everyday women experienced, as well—just under the glare of the spotlight,” he says.
It was around 1978 when Durham started building his Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis collection. Among the first items were a commemorative plate featuring John and Jacqueline Kennedy. But it was a college assignment that required Durham to write an essay about a person who made a difference in fashion and humanitarian work that really fueled his interest in Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the subject of his essay. His eventual, enormous collection of memorabilia of the former first lady grew out of that assignment as he collected research from magazines and read books passed down to him from his mother and grandparents.
Over the years, Durham’s collection grew large enough to take up space in a dedicated room in his house and included oddities like a Jacqueline Kennedy fishing lure. But since 2000, it has been his commissioned Jacqueline Kennedy wedding dress, a replica of the original made by African American designer Ann Lowe that she wore in her wedding to John F. Kennedy, that became his prized possession. The original wedding dress is kept at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
When Durham talks to audiences about the replica dress that he donated to the National First Ladies Library & Museum, along with much of his memorabilia, he shares that the skirt alone was made from 50 yards of Italian ivory silk taffeta. Even more interesting is that the same year the NFLLM acquired Durham’s replica dress the nonprofit boosted its membership and revenue. Most of all, Durham was relieved to find a place that valued the items as much as he did.
In Naples later this month, Durham will talk more about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her transition from mother, to wife, to socialite and how her style has endured as part of her legacy. Durham attributes that to the former first lady’s consistency. She never faltered. She looked the same, kept the same hairdo, kept the same clothing, kept her poise, she kept her dignity and she never spoke to the press, he notes.
“I think that’s her enduring legacy,” Durham says. “And the fact that she didn’t bow to the demands of the era.”
Guests of the event are encouraged to take part in the program by wearing their “Jackie finest” attire such as classic sheath dresses and pearls. There will also be a Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis photograph auctioned off. Tickets to “Jackie & Monte—A Legacy of Style” are limited and are available here.
Updated Feb. 5, 2026