When Marie Antoinette arrived at Versailles at 10 A.M. on May 16, 1770, she was a graceful, not very tall 14-year-old with newly straightened teeth. Three hours later she was married to the dauphin, the future Louis XVI, king of France. Life at Versailles was a spectacle, and the young bride’s role was essentially performative. Her powdered hair, rouge, and jewels were required elements of the court uniform, and as a teenager she was no more able to choose her clothes and décor than she could control how she spent her time. Once she became queen, in 1774, she was able to exert herself.
Opening today at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the exhibition “Marie Antoinette Style” invites visitors to discover the queen through her evolving taste in decoration and self-adornment. Marie Antoinette did not invent trends so much as make aesthetic choices that were quickly adopted as the fashion. The show analyzes those transitions, the way silhouettes moved from a panniered court style to robes à la polonaise and à la turque, and then to something altogether more shocking—simple muslins. There is a swoony fairy-tale quality to the queen’s jewels, shoes, fans, feathers, rouge pots, and perfume bottles. This collection of 250 objects includes rare historical artifacts as well as more recent works inspired by the ill-fated queen.
