Is Amal Clooney New York's New Carolyn Bessette?

At 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Amal Clooney walked into Classroom 103 in William and June Warren Hall at Columbia Law School. The human rights lawyer and wife of the actorGeorge Clooney was dressed in a cream textured coat and floral Oscar de la Renta slingbacks and carried a tangerine bag the size of a large toaster.

—The New York Times, April 5, 2015

Suddenly, the world wants to know, What's she wearing? How'd she do her hair? And how did she get him anyway? "Our new Obsession,'' New York Times columnist Maureen Dowdcalled the former Calvin Klein publicist. Such is the price of bagging The Most Eligible Bachelor Alive: millions of otherwise sane women want either to hit you or to emulate your every move.

—Newsweek, October 20, 1996

Ever since the Clooneys arrived in the city earlier this year, both New York media and a celeb-conscious nationwide contingent, has shifted into high gear fascination over Amal. It is nearly impossible to click on any fashion- or Manhattan-related blog without seeing snapshots of Mrs. Clooney—husband George now relegated to a walking accessory—leaving restaurants, toting coffees, or heading to Columbia University, where she is guest lecturing; her fashion choices for each outing chronicled religiously. The media attention reached its apotheosis last week when the New York Times devoted the front page of its Thursday Styles section to a play-by-play of hertakeover of New York.

For some longtime New Yorkers the coverage may strike a familiar note. The last time the city went this gaga over the arrival of a new bride was nearly two decades ago when Carolyn Bessette, she of thered lips andbuttery blond locks, secretly married John F. Kennedy Jr. on an island in Georgia and then appeared on his arm two weeks later on the stoop of their TriBeCa loft building.

Much like Amal—arguably far more so when one considers that this was pre-social media—the new Mrs. Kennedy wastracked relentlessly; Newsweek magazine devotedan entire page to "dissecting" her beauty transformation. Behold this slightly alarming snippet, which should give you some sense of how extreme the fascination was: "Eyebrows: They used to be more of a half circle. Now they're straighter with no pronounced arch, probably waxed or tweezed. It's a '20s look, very glamorous right now."

But the similarities between the two are not limited to the press' obsession. Both Bessette and Clooney were virtually unknown before marrying their über-famous spouses. After the wedding, both were immediately catapulted into the limelight and lauded for their combination of brains and beauty.

Before marrying Kennedy, Bessette was a public relations executive for Calvin Klein during the company's mid-'90s heyday. Not perhaps the professional equivalent of Mrs. Clooney's international law credentials but substantially more career-focused than JFK Jr.'s former actress and model girlfriends. "Carolyn represents a very '90s nexus of fashion, sex and publicity,"said Newsweek at the time, calling the marriage "a media merger of publicist and fame and a love story."

As for Clooney, her professional credentials are well known and perfectly suited to a world in which Hillary Clinton—who, in 1996, was still freshly out of her cookie baking First Lady phase and about to enter the 'stand by your man' years—has just announced her second run for President.

Since her marriage last weekend to John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette has been breathlessly described as the beautiful and brainy new Queen of Camelot.

—The New York Times, Sept 29, 1996

"[Amal] is not a reality-show girl," [designer Giambattista] Valli said. "Finally there is someone with a mind and legs."

—The New York Times, April 5, 2015

Needless to say, both women have been relentlessly lauded for their style. Amal may singlehandedly bring bell bottoms back after being snapped in them leaving dinner in midtown the other week. Bessette, despite her tragically short tenure in the limelight, managed to establish herself as a true style icon; her famous Narciso Rodriguez wedding slip dress is still being mimicked to this day, and the minimalist camel skirt she donned when her husband first introduced her to the ravenous press corps outside their apartment would not be amiss today (though at the time it was a fashion revelation that sent the city into a frenzy). Even the long lean look both Bessette and Clooney sport, the full lips, high cheekbones, square jaws—all capped off by a full head of glossy hair—seem strikingly similar.

And then there are the husbands, themselves, in many ways, strangely reversed versions of each other. For decades, JFK Jr. was America's crown prince, longtime most eligible bachelor/sexiest man alive, heir the to Camelot legacy; an intoxicating mix of politics (obviously), media (George magazine was brilliant and ahead of its time), with a dash of Hollywood thrown in (John was long rumored to harbor acting ambitions and once did amuch-discussed turn on Murphy Brown).

George Clooney, meanwhile, has long been the closest thing we have to an old school movie star, with an impressive history of ambitious, respected films, and two Oscars to his credit. Like Kennedy before him, he's spent his fair share of time on the sexy and eligible lists and is rumored to harbor political ambitions. Both men were also serial monogamists, for many years dating an array of actresses before doing a 180 and settling down with an independent, beautiful, non-celebrity spouse.

"The couple will have a glorious future in politics, if they want it, because they are perfectly in tune with the times. Substance and big ideas have been drained from the '96 Presidential campaign in favor of weepy biography and trivia."

—Maureen Dowd, October 3, 1996

What you will see upon close inspection is the emergence of an ambitious political couple, a couple planning to slowly, carefully evolve into a political force to be reckoned with. Theirs was not only a wedding; it was a political coming out party.

—Huffington Post, October 2, 2014

Finally there's the silence factor. Carolyn Bessette never gave a single interview. Like a modern-era silent film star, the public was fascinated by her look but, apart from thisthree-second clip, never heard her voice.

Amal, of course, exists in a radically different media age, and since becoming Mrs. Clooney, video of her addressing the European Court of Human Rightshas appeared online (and clocked more than 300,000 views), along with a few, short red carpetinterviews. Even so, considering she has arrived in the era of Kim Kardashian, it's remarkable how little we've heard from her.

Or not. Two decades may have passed but we still tend to prefer our female style idols as such: beautiful, smart (you may recall that Jackie Kennedy spoke four languages), and discreet. Not only does a lack of information present us with a cleaner palette onto which we can project ourselves, in a world where no one shuts up, one's (literal) lack of voice can serve as the ultimate power play. At least for the time being. It's hard not to ruminate on what Bessette would have made of her life once the spotlight dimmed enough to give her some breathing space. Just as one might wager a bet that once Amal adjusts to the limelight, we'll be hearing plenty more from her (in addition, of course, to those who are lucky enough to hear her lectures at Columbia, or hear her argue in court). In the meantime, there is a lot of shiny hairto obsess over.