The celebrated ‘Marie Antoinette Style’ Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London explores the lasting legacy of the most glamorous Queen in history with over 250 years of iconic fashion, jewellery, art and film.
The most fashionable, scrutinised and controversial queen in history, Marie Antoinette’s name summons both visions of excess and objects and interiors of great beauty. The Austrian archduchess turned Queen of France had an enormous impact on European taste and fashion in her own time, creating a distinctive style that now has universal appeal and application… Marie Antoinette’s story has been re-told and re-purposed by each successive generation to suit its own ends. The rare combination of glamour, spectacle and tragedy she presents remains as intoxicating today as it was in the 18th century.
This exhibition explores the origins and countless revivals of the style shaped by the most fashionable queen in history, Marie Antoinette. A fashion icon in her own time, and an early modern ‘celebrity’, the dress and interiors modelled and adopted by the ill-fated Queen of France in the final decades of the 18th century have had a lasting influence on over 250 years of design, fashion, film and decorative arts.
Marie Antoinette was France’s most fashionable queen. Although she held no real political power, she wielded enormous influence through her patronage of the French luxury trades, particularly fashion and textiles. Rejecting the rigid pageantry of the court, her style evolved from the elaborate high Rococo confections of her teenage years to an increasingly streamlined, relaxed and ‘simple aesthetic. Her influence extended beyond fashion, shaping the interiors, decorative arts, gardens and music of her time.
Marie Antoinette’s tastes were modern, daring and sometimes divisive. To the people of France, her style symbolised unattainable and unimaginable luxury. Her reign was also a period in which colonial territories, enslavement and trade contributed to France’s wealth and power. As revolution brewed, Marie Antoinette became a prime target for dissenters and a symbol of a world on the brink of upheaval, hastening her path to the guillotine.
The exhibition begins with a spectacular display of 18th century Court Dress and Fashion, featuring fragments of Marie Antoinette’s own clothes and slippers as well as the Queen Hedwig Elisabeth Charlotte of Sweden.
On display are exceptionally rare personal items owned and worn by Marie Antoinette, including richly embellished fragments of court dress, the Queen’s own silk slippers, and jewels from her private collection.
The most magnificent section of the exhibit features the Jewels associated with Queen Marie Antoinette, highlighted by a magnificent Pearl Pendant which broke records at Auction in 2018, along with a Diamond Bow Brooch.
The display also features the Sutherland Diamond Rivière and the Anglesey Diamond Négligé, which may be a part of the legendary Collier de La Reine.
Alongside other examples of 18th century jewellery, on display are Dress Ornaments from the Russian Crown Jewels and Diamond Bow Brooches from the Cory Bequest, which are a part of the V&A’s permanent jewellery display.
The exhibition then explores Queen Marie Antoinette’s influence in creating style and her patronage of many of the French luxury industries, from fans to furniture, art, fashion, and fragrances.
The Queen’s dinner service from the Petit Trianon, her accessories and intimate items from her toilette case are on display for the first time outside of Versailles and France.
Next, we examined various pamphlets which attacked her habits and how that contributed to the French Revolution, which leads on to the most gruesome room with some objects associated with her final imprisonment and death, which include the blade from a guillotine.
Then, the exhibit explores how Queen Marie Antoinette has inspired generations of fashion, architecture and design, which has continued to influence society to this day.
The final display highlights the legacy of Queen Marie Antoinette in Fashion and Film, with contemporary couture pieces by designers such as Moschino, Dior, Chanel, Erdem, Vivienne Westwood and Valentino alongside costumes made for screen, such as for Sofia Coppola’s Oscar winning Marie Antoinette, as well as shoes designed for the film by Manolo Blahnik.
‘Marie Antoinette Style’ runs until March 22nd, and while tickets are sold out, members of the V&A can access at any time.
Queen Marie Antoinette’s Pearl Necklace
Diamond Bracelets
Royal Jewels from the Bourbon Parma Family
