Revealing the luxurious legacy of Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette’s grandiose lifestyle continues to influence fashion and the arts
Portrait of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, in a court dress, 1773, François Hubert Drouais, Oil painting, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Marie Antoinette is famous and infamous
Marie Antoinette is as famous for her grandiose lifestyle as she is infamous for her role as a central figure in the turbulent fall of France’s monarchy during the French Revolution.
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From her birth in 1755 to her execution in 1793, Marie Antoinette’s brief life was driven by politics and circumstances seemingly beyond her control. Â
Installation photo with Wedding gown of Duchess Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta (later Queen of Sweden), Photo Göran Schmidt Livrustkammaren/SHM (CC BY 4.0)
She was born in Vienna and named Maria Antonia, the youngest daughter and the fifteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa. At that time, Maria Theresa ruled the Habsburg monarchy, which included Austria, Hungary, and Croatia.
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Maria Antonia spent her formative years in palaces and sumptuous residences. She enjoyed a life with private tutors and courtiers, bathed in the luxurious lifestyle that befitted royalty.
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In an arrangement to secure peace, Maria Theresa agreed to the betrothal of her youngest daughter to the Dauphin of France, the heir to the French throne, the grandson of King Louis XV.
A diamond and pearl drop pendant and a diamond bow brooch that belonged to Marie Antoinette, the collection includes pieces owned by Marie Antoinette, as well as items from her contemporaries and pieces inspired by her legacy, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
In 1770, at the age of fourteen, Maria Antonia married the future French king, who was only fifteen. Upon her arrival in France, she adopted the French version of her name, Marie Antoinette.
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Very quickly, and within four years of her marriage, King Louis XV dies, and her twenty-year-old husband ascends to the French throne as King Louis XVI. Marie Antoinette becomes his queen consort.
A Marie-Antoinette chair, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
King Louis XVI inherited not only the throne of France but also a vast kingdom deeply in debt and a country in social turmoil. The reign of the young king and his equally young queen coincided with a period of tremendous political and social change in France.
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As the king and queen and their royal court lived lavishly in the grand Palace of Versailles, their spending on fashion, luxuries, and the construction of grander homes widened the gap between them and ordinary French people living in poverty.
The French Revolution ended her luxurious life
Although multiple causes contributed, the significant wealth gap between the wealthy and the poor sparked a massive reaction that ultimately led to the French Revolution.
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Marie Antoinette was especially vilified and targeted for her extravagance and scandals, even as the country faced a financial crisis and citizens rioted over flour and bread prices.
The Sutherland Diamonds, comprising diamond necklace with two additional diamond-set sections, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
As the winds of change took hold and the seeds of the French Revolution were sown, the French monarchy, as represented by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, could neither manage nor survive. As the king and queen of France, they represented everything that was wrong with the French monarchy.
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The monarchy was abolished in 1792, leading to the establishment of the First French Republic. Louis XVI was executed. A year later, Marie Antoinette was convicted of treason and then publicly guillotined. She was only thirty-seven.
Installation photo © Victoria and Albert Museum, London with Portrait de Marie-Antoinette à la rose Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, © Château de Versailles, Dist. Grand Palais RMN / Christophe Fouin
Marie Antoinette’s seemingly fairytale lifestyle and dramatic execution sparked an enduring fascination with her legacy. During her time as Queen of France and afterwards, the many facets of Marie Antoinette’s perceived persona and her impact on French politics, the arts, and culture have been repeatedly examined.
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In this exhibition, Marie Antoinette Style at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), one specific aspect of the ill-fated French queen, her prominence as a twenty-first-century fashion muse, is on display.
Marie Antoinette was a fashionable and controversial queen
Sarah Grant, curator of the show, explains that she was: “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, who became 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 eighteenth century.”
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Exceptional objects and loans from the Château de Versailles are on display, including historical and contemporary fashion. 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, as well as the final notes she wrote, are on display. The Queen’s dinner service from the Petit Trianon, along with her accessories and intimate items from her toilette case, is on show for the first time outside of Versailles and France.
One slipper belonging to Marie Antoinette beaded pink silk, Photo CC0 Paris Mus̩es / Mus̩e Carnavalet РHistoire de Paris
Alongside audiovisual installations and immersive curation, artefacts and contemporary pieces trace her cultural impact, explore the origins and numerous revivals of the Marie Antoinette style, and examine its enduring fascination among leading designers and creatives.
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Couture pieces by contemporary designers such as Moschino, Dior, Chanel, Erdem, Vivienne Westwood, and Valentino are featured alongside screen costumes, including Sofia Coppola’s Oscar-winning Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst, as well as shoes designed for the film by Manolo Blahnik.
Antonietta, 2005, Manolo Blahnik
The legacy of Marie Antoinette has shaped not just fashion, design, interiors, gardens, and the fine and decorative arts of her own time, but has continued to influence design, fashion, film, and the decorative arts for over 250 years.
Film still from Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. Photo I WANT CANDY LLC. and Zoetrope Corp
Marie Antoinette Style considers afresh the legacy of a complex figure whose style, youth, and notoriety have contributed to her timeless appeal.
Text Victoria and Albert Museum & Cammy Yiu and photos Victoria and Albert Museum
