The stylish Queen of France, Marie Antoinette had a hugely influential impact on fashion. According to the V&A Museum, Marie Antoinette has had a ‘lasting influence on over 250 years of design, fashion, film and decorative arts.’ Her influence has reached fashion designers, including Vivienne Westwood and Manolo Blahnik to film director, Sofia Coppola.
This is the first time outside of France that Marie Antoinette’s collections of jewellery, fashion, and personal items have been on display. The exhibit takes you through Marie Antoinette’s personal collections and her defining moments in history. Introducing to the world her contemporary works, including couture pieces from major designer houses. This all comes together to curate ‘Marie Antoinette’s Style’ – from both centuries old and modern pieces of art. In this article we take a look through some of the exhibit’s highlights. In particular, the exquisite details in Marie Antoinette’s style and fashion across the years.
The Elaborate Dresses of Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette’s style was feminine, chic, and sophisticated. Her gowns featured embroidered details, bows, and feathers. Between the years of the 1770s to 1780s saw a phenomenon of animal print. Marie Antoinette’s style was inclusive of patterns and designs. Everything from florals and stripes to brocades and even leopard-print designs too.
However, it was the details within the gowns that really made her standout. Not afraid of combining colour palettes and fabrics, for Marie Antoinette the bigger the gown, the more stylish the Queen. One of her favourite fabrics to wear was chiné silk due to its silky, lightweight, and durable nature. This type of fabric is part of many of her staple wardrobe pieces. Marie Antoinette’s gowns often featured linen lace, silk chenille, elaborate petticoats, and silk plain weave (taffeta).
Court Dresses with Embellishments
The 1770s also saw Marie Antoinette styled in what was termed, ‘robe á la polonaise’ which translates as the ‘gown in the Polish style.’ An extremely popular style created a voluminous silhouette from rope looped into the skirt. This is a more modern style compared to its predecessor, the ‘robe á la francaise’ with its box-pleated fabric, an open petticoat, and lacey fabric ruffled sleeves.
But it was around 1780 where her court dresses moved to cream silk satin fabric, which was extremely popular in fashion at the time. This high-end fabric provided an excellent foundation to sew trimmings and embroidery details to elevate the gowns’ designs. Of course, with Marie Antoinette’s delicate gown designs, her preference also included embellishments, including lace, feathers, ribbon, raffia, and fringe with tassels to heighten her fashion.
It’s All In The Details
Jean-Francois Bony designed several gowns for Marie Antoinette. Her court dresses often featured a long train, applique silks, and royal motifs. In the 1790s, a wave of Neoclassical motifs became popular. As a royal emblem, ‘Swans’ featured as an embellishment in Marie Antoinette’s gowns. The embroidery details within her gowns are simply exquisite.
Details from her dresses on display featured ivory silk embellished with metal thread embroidery, coloured gems, appliqué velvet, and sequins. Not to mention the trimmings and new silks that often adorned her court dresses. The idea behind adding these embellishments meant when Marie Antoinette walked past candlelight or sunlight, the gown would sparkle. This is known as ‘visual trickery.’ The use of highly decorative detail give the allusion of a grandiose royal sparkle. Marie Antoinette was also often seen wearing light colour palettes including salmon pink and creams.
However, on 10th August 1792, during the storming of The Tuileries Palace (as part of the French Revolution), many of Marie Antoinette’s elaborate gowns were stolen from her palace wardrobe. This V&A Museum exhibit only showcased the few extravagant gowns that remained. Sadly, most of her gowns on display at the exhibit have no maker to their name.
Click through our slideshow of the Marie Antoinette Style Exhibit dresses.
The Delicate Accessories of Marie Antoinette
Although Marie Antoinette’s elaborately stylish gowns have always been a talking point about the former Queen of France. It was also the accessories and jewellery which made her dazzle, sparkle, and shine. The fashionable Queen bedazzled in diamond encrusted bow brooches, pendants, and heart-shaped rings. A book full of her jewellery designs was also on display. These depicted her evolution from jewelled flowers and bows in her former years to diamond chaton and blue enamel rings later in her reign. Marie Antoinette also accessorised with headdresses, mantles, sashes, and cloaks.
But of course, her selection of extremely detailed fans were never far out of reach.
Shoes, Shoes, & More Shoes
During her early reigns as Queen of France, Marie Antoinette was gifted four pairs of shoes every week. She often wore what was termed the ‘Saint Huberty’ heel. This was named after and popularised by opera singer, Madame Saint-Huberty. But Marie Antoinette’s true elegance is undoubtedly highlighted in her ability to master the ‘Versailles glide.’ The term highlighted the elegant walk down the corridors of the Palace of Versailles which tricked others in thinking her shoes barely touched the ground but ‘glided’ instead.
Mules were also a very popular type of shoe to wear at the time. Marie Antoinette often wore mules with a formal court dress, known as the ‘grand habit.’ Mules have extreme detail and feature a pointed-toe design with beaded silk fabric, and metal thread embroidery.
Click through our slideshow of the Marie Antoinette Style Exhibit accessories.
Marie Antoinette Depicted In Film & TV
Over the years, there have been numerous adaptations depicting Marie Antoinette’s life. Here we explore her life depicted through film and tv adaptations.
Marie Antoinette (1938)
Spanning back in time to the late 1930s sees Norma Shearer play Marie Antoinette – playing a young Queen to her inevitable demise. At the 11th Academy Awards, W.S. Van Dyke’s film was nominated for four Oscars for Best Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Score, and Production Design. French painter, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun’s Marie Antoinette portraits were the inspiration for costume designer, Gilbert Adrian. His style blended history with Hollywood fashion. Labelled as one of the most influential figures in the Golden Age of Hollywood, Gilbert Adrian worked on crafting Glinda’s dress for The Wizard of Oz (1939). For Marie Antoinette’s court dress, he interestingly combined faux grape bunches with fabric bows which ran down the sleeves and the skirt.
Marie Antoinette (2006)
The most famous example on her life depicted for the screen being the Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006). This saw Kirsten Dunst star as the fashionable yet ill-fated Queen of France. For the film’s extravagantly pastel-coloured gowns were curated by designer, Milena Canonero. She subsequently went on to win an Oscar for ‘Best Costume Design’ at the 79th Academy Awards.
The film’s gowns were designed with Sofia Coppola’s direction who prompted designer, Canonero to be inspired by the colourful selection of a box of macarons from a Parisian patisserie. It was these sickly-sweet pastel shades that made up the colour palette for the film’s gowns. Kirsten Dunst is wearing diamond moon and star earrings in the film’s coronation sequence and birthday scene. During the film awards season this year, Kirsten Dunst visited the exhibition too.
The Great (S03 E03)
For her work on period-drama TV series, The Great (2020-2023), Sharon Long won a BAFTA for Costume Design. As well as, an Emmy for ‘Outstanding Period Costumes For A Series.’ For Marie Antoinette’s court fashions, Sharon Long created a ‘toile de Jouy’ gown along with the hat and accessories. Interestingly, the term refers back to a factory near Versailles called Jouy-en-Josas. Elle Fanning wore the gown in season three, episode three of the series, which sees her play Catherine the Great.
Marie Antoinette’s Style Told Through Designer Houses
For decades major names in fashion have been inspired by Marie Antoinette’s style. One of the most exquisite examples is the pastel green ‘Marquise Masquee’ gown by John Galliano for the Christian Dior Couture collection of Spring 1998. This gown was the centrepiece of the exhibit’s fashion section. Galliano combined the elegance of Marie Antoinette’s court dresses with classic Dior. This design featured a cinched waist, paniered silhouette, and fine ruffles among other details. My favourite is the ‘Petit Trianon’ dress, designed by Karl Lagerfeld for CHANEL in 2006.
Other fashion houses to take inspiration from Marie Antoinette’s style includes Franco Moschino and Jeremy Scott for Moschino, Vivienne Westwood, and Karl Lagerfeld for CHANEL. As well as, Maria Grazia for Christian Dior, and Alessandro Michele for Valentino.
Click through our slideshow of the Marie Antoinette Style Exhibit Designer Houses gowns.
Marie Antoinette’s style has certainly lasted the test of time. Her legacy leaves behind an immense impact on fashion, history, pop culture, film, and much more. Let us know in the comments which gown, accessory, or fact from this guide on the V&A Museum’s Marie Antoinette Style exhibit was your favourite.
You can read more fashion posts like this, including the The Top 5 Best Dressed on the Oscars Red Carpet.
Rating: 4 Stars
