“Let them see what they’ve done.”
That was Jackie Kennedy's reaction when her aides suggested she change out of the blood-stained Chanel suit she wore on the plane trip back to Washington, D.C. after her husband's assassination.
The pink outfit has since become one of the most famous articles of clothing in history, but it has been hidden away ever since that fateful day on Nov. 22, 1963.
The suit sits preserved at the National Archives in a climate-controlled vault near the nation's capital.
And only a few select people alive today will ever see it.
That's because the Kennedy family has placed strict restrictions that it not be seen again in public for another 90 years.
The New York Times reports the pink suit, accompanying navy shoes, a bag and navy blouse, all still stained with President Kennedy's blood, were placed in the National Archives in 1964.
The clothing legally belongs to the couple's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and in 2003 she gifted the items to the nation under the requirements that they not be seen by the public until 2103.
While other artifacts from the shooting are available to some researchers, the Times reports these especially personal items have remained off-limits, "To the best of anyone’s knowledge, access to Mrs. Kennedy’s suit for research purposes has never been granted."
The Kennedy family has never asked that the clothing be cleaned, and for museum curators leaving blood and other residue on such garments is standard conservation practice.
