Revolutionary Style: The Never Ending Influence of Marie Antoinette's Fashion
- jackdradey123
- Nov 14, 2024
- 4 min read
Marie Antoinette is most famously known for being the last queen of France before the French revolution and is often falsely credited with the phrase ‘let them eat cake’. For historians, these two attributions can make her fashion a secondary thought. As someone who has a deep passion for fashion and history, I feel like it is my duty to shine proper light on this fashion icon. Antoinette’s fashion defied tradition, displayed personality, and contradicted the societal norms of eighteenth century France. Since her reign, the past two centuries have shown that Antoinette’s fashion has a lasting impact on the runway but has been overlooked in histography.
The big question is; who was responsible for Antoinette’s defying fashion? Her name is Rose Bertin who was a fashion merchant that worked closely with Antoinette to produce her stunning looks. Bertin is often described as the first celebrity fashion designer; together Antoinette and Bertin was the eighteenth century version of Cher and Bob Mackie. The two met in 1774, right at the beginning of Antoinette’s reign as queen of France. Bertin, at the start of Antoinette’s reign, made sure that she dressed the queen in elaborate and extravagant garments that highlighted her royalty. The robe à la française also known as sack back gown was all the rage in eighteenth century France, and this was a popular style that Bertin stuck to for the newly crowned queen. This style of dress that was popular look for freshly coronated Antoinette and was distinctive by the fabric at the back of the dress being organised in box pleats which fell from the shoulder and hit the ground. Despite Bertin’s stunning sack back gowns, it was her less traditional work that captivated Antoinette.
The most controversial fashion moment in Antoinette’s reign was the chemise à la reine, which, for me, is the fashion moment that takes Antoinette to icon level. The name itself highlights the queen as a fashion icon because in English chemise à la reine translates to chemise of the queen. It should be noted that even though she popularised this style of fashion in eighteenth century Europe and was the foundation for less extravagant Regency fashion, the style of dress was not something the queen or Bertin created as it was an existing style of dress in certain parts of African, mainly in Creole culture (meaning those who had European and African descent). Chemise was a loose fitting underlayer that acted as a protective layer between the skin and the main garment. Antoinette stunned society when she started to wear a chemise as more than just an undergarment. We can use this portrait of Antoinette titled ‘Marie-Antoinette en gaulle’ painted by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun in 1783, which displays Antoinette’s controversial fashion choice, whilst also showing that she made softer fashion choices with pastel colours and less extravagant hair. The chemise that Antoinette is seen wearing would have been made out of muslin which was not a fabric that was exclusive to royalty and the upper class, many people from all walks of life wore muslin. Antoinette was seen in a dress that was essentially an undergarment, and many saw this as peasant clothing. This fashion choice was deemed controversial due to the strict class system at the time, and it broke with the long standing tradition of French royalty. This garment may not have been controversial for those in Antoinette’s inner circle as by the early 1780s ‘the queen no longer wore any dresses but muslin or white Florentine taffety’ as recorded by Madame Campan in her memoirs. Those who were not in her inner circle but was still of the upper class saw this garment as the height of informality as she what she was wearing was essentially underwear and it broke away from the traditional elaborate and structured French court dresses. Even though portraits and accounts show Antoinette wearing over the top gowns that we associate with eighteenth century France, the queen favoured practicality and comfortability so it can be argued that she was not just the queen of France she was also the queen of comfort.
As mentioned previously, even though Antoinette’s fashion may escape the minds of many historians, her fashion has a lasting impact on the runway. Fashion designers tend to go for her more extravagant looks to make a bold impact on the runway, but they still inject her more subdued fashion choices. In Moschino’s Fall 2020 ready to wear collection it showcased womenswear that was structured with corsets and hoop skirts, which as we know was not favoured by Antoinette. However, the simple floral motif that ran across all the looks was very on brand for the queens controversial fashion choices and referred to her love of pastels. It could also be argued that Moschino upheld the controversy for displaying pastels in a Fall runway. Another example that explicitly makes reference to Antoinette’s controversial ‘en gaulle’ portrait was Simone Rocha in her Spring 2023 ready to wear collection. In the two images above, we can see that Rocha has designed more fluid garments in a light coloured tulle fabric, similar to the muslin fabric used in the ‘en gualle’ portrait. Rocha still maintains a sense of regality in her garments, similar to Antoinette’s, by the use of pearls or the use of florals in a pastel blue colour.
Overall, it is clear that Marie Antoinette has had a lasting impact on fashion. The last queen of France before the French revolution was clearly ahead of her time. During her reign, that had a tragic ending, she broke the traditional fashion conventions of eighteenth century France. Arguably, her controversial fashion choices paved the way for the iconic fashion we see during the regency period. When compiling this together, it shows that Marie Antoinette is a fashion trendsetter who should be remembered for her daring fashion choices rather than a quote that she never actually said.
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