Celebrating the most fashionable queen in history, the hotly anticipated Marie Antoinette Style exhibition opens at the V&A museum this weekend, bringing together over 250 objects including key objects from the V&A’s own collection and many international loans such as items never seen outside the Château de Versailles or France.
The first UK exhibition dedicated to the ill-fated Queen of France, this immersive curation takes visitors on a fascinating journey illustrating the legacy of Marie Antoinette and how she was not only a fashion icon in her own time, but has continued to influence style and the decorative arts for over 250 years.
“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,” explains exhibition curator, Sarah Grant, “The rare combination of glamour, spectacle and tragedy she presents remains as intoxicating today as it was in the eighteenth century.”
A host of lavish 18th century court dresses are theatrically staged and lit, while personal items owned by Marie Antoinette – jewels from her private collection, intimate accessories from her toilette case and a pair of the Queen’s very petite silk slippers (one caption informing us that she took delivery of four new pairs of shoes a week!) – ensure that the visitor will not only be dazzled from the start but feel a connection to the Queen that might take them by surprise.
The 17 portraits of Marie Antoinette on loan from the Château de Versailles are vital in reminding us of the controversial Queen’s youth, despite the powdered wigs – she was just 14 when she married the future Louis XVI in 1770 – while other objects, including her dinner service from the Petit Trianon and musical instruments from her court, further set the scene of her cossetted life at Versailles, where her every wish was the command of her courtiers.
The exhibition’s grand finale is a spectacular collection of couture pieces by designers such as Moschino, Dior, Chanel, Erdem, Vivienne Westwood and Valentino, along with costumes made for Sofia Coppola’s Oscar-winning Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst in the title role, not to mention the exquisite shoes designed by exhibition sponsor Manolo Blahnik.
But despite the whimsicality of the brightly lit, Matthew Bourne-style confection-like centrepiece celebrating Marie Antoinette’s timeless appeal and the enduring inspiration which fashion designers from around the world have drawn from her style, this exhibition encourages you to ponder on this figure in history in far more depth than just admiring the clothes she wore.
Marie Antoinette Style at the V&A Museum London from 20th September 2025. For more information and tickets please visit www.vam.ac.uk.
