Letizia Mowinckel, who procured the pink Chanel suit that became an enduring symbol of Jacqueline Kennedy's composure after President Kennedy's assassination, has died at 105 in Rome. The American diplomat's wife and fashion scout met Mrs. Kennedy at a party in Rome in 1954, and their friendship deepened as John F. Kennedy rose from senator to president.

Mowinckel's role as Kennedy's secret Parisian fashion procurer began when she offered to have pants made for the first lady after a chance meeting in Newport. Using an elaborate cover story about a Sicilian princess, she obtained designer clothes for Kennedy, who faced criticism for favoring foreign designers during the 1960 campaign. At Chanel, Mowinckel ordered the now-famous strawberry-pink bouclé suit that Kennedy wore on November 22, 1963.

The suit took on historic significance when Kennedy chose to wear it during the fateful Dallas motorcade. As Lady Bird Johnson later recounted, Kennedy told her husband she needed to look 'marvelous' among wealthy Texas women. After the assassination, Kennedy famously refused to remove the bloodstained suit, telling Lady Bird Johnson, 'I want them to see what they have done to Jack.' The suit remains preserved in the National Archives, a haunting artifact of that day.