Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution

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I found it interesting how the history and personality of a person can be reflected in fashion so much. From her powdered, sky-high hairdos to her divine selection of costly satin footwear, Marie Antoinette won over her adoring public at first, but quickly became a lightning rod for criticism of the French monarchy’s decadence during a national economic recession (. Hunting Frenchwomen hid "culottes" under skirts; only the awesome Catherine the Great of Russia and comic actresses flaunted their lower limbs in breeches. But the author discusses a whole range of courtly styles and habits and shows how Marie Antoinette attempted to assert her individuality in this constrained sphere that was allowed her. While fashion as a mode of expression will always be part of our lives, to say that its stakes have since greatly changed would be an understatement.

While Princess Margaret could indulge in the latest Parisian fashions for Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’, Elizabeth II remained loyal to the doctrine, established by Queen Charlotte in the eighteenth century, that royal women should wear British. Marie Antoinette has always stood as an icon of supreme style, but surprisingly none of her biographers have paid sustained attention to her clothes. Throughout history it has served an important constitutional purpose: to reinforce the status of the monarch and distinguish them from the people and palaces that surround them.

Weber isn't interested in the frocks as frocks: she's an academic, pernickety over the semiotics of their perceived meaning, but her wardrobe vocabulary is as lax as glossy-mag captions - "fashion statements", "opulent", "furbelows" and even lazier imprecisions. With the support of a few loyal designers, she avoided the foibles of fashion to craft an image which was elegant, timeless, and instantly recognisable. Colours, motifs and jewellery with special symbolism are used to honour the guests she is greeting, or the countries visited on her overseas tours. Once her clothes had fulfilled their official role, they often become part of her private wardrobe worn at home in Sandringham or Balmoral where she daily encountered the muddy paws of her beloved brood of Corgis.

I made the mistake of thinking this would be a "fun" read - Marie Antoinette, seen through a fashion lens. The sweet white polka dots, the girlish white belt and the swing of the pleated skirt lend this outfit a lighthearted mood which sets an appropriate mood-music for a walkabout surrounded by excited children. The strong colour enables her to be the focus of attention without looking stiff or formal, while the turban brings a strong dash of 1970s glamour.More than fashion, the ultimate subjects of the book are image and public personae; the history of a bizarre kind of court etiquette; and the horrifying disorientation of the Revolution as experienced by "la ci-devant reine. However, this book gave me more of a sympathy for the queen who was thrust into the public eye in France and the decisions made by her and for her. The thrifty Queen re-wears and adapts her clothes, with the average lifespan of an outfit running to 25 years. The last cap is dignified even in Jacques-Louis David's brutal sketch of its wearer en route to the guillotine. At London Fashion Week in February 2018, there was only one contender for the best-dressed celebrity on the front row.

She wore them during the second world war when she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, donning khaki trousers, a utility jacket and cap while training as a mechanic and truck driver. Later the things she was divested of were taken home as trophies by the ladies that attended her stripping and redressing as a Frenchwoman, and she would see them at court brazingly wearing those things they stripped her of. Just the garb for A-list rusticity at the Petit Trianon, where mirror shutters were cranked over windows so that its façade was as arrogantly blank as Victoria Beckham in outsize RayBans. It sounds like the foofiest of history books -- I couldn't help imagining an illustrated paper doll book or something -- but it's actually just a great biography with lots of great details about how the court functioned.When they took Mops from her the one attachment of her grieving heart, she had only them to look too for affection, and was reminded when she burst into tears and flung herself into the arms of one of them , that there would be no more display of tears. Yet at the very end it was a simple fashion statement that enabled the ultimate fashion victim to maintain her own dignity. The story of Marie Antoinette is very well told, by Caroline Weber, it shows the child Marie Antoinette was ,and the game way she stepped up to this great alliance knowing all she represented. But even with the steady slaps to her presumption her worthy nose for puffed up posturing Mesdames, she will hold sway in the fabulous nest of really a jewelled bird, already thousands of ducks and swan feathers have been plucked to ornament her and here is Rose, the will o wisp of the Poufs! There is a lovely playfulness to this outfit, designed by Ian Thomas for a visit to Blois in France in 1992.

And her grandpapa far from discouraging her riding, seeing her joy, gets her own stables of beauties and soon she shows fine spirit and mettle and is following the chase riding like a man, wearing embroidered breeches and getting lots of fresh air. It was, of course, dominated by classic British brands: Hunter wellies, cardigans by Pringle of Scotland, blouses from Grosvenor Shirts Ltd, quilted Barbour jackets and Mackintosh trenches were all wardrobe stalwarts, each appointed the coveted Royal Warrant for their service to monarch. The wretched state of the people while Louis danced, hunted, and copulated from his assembled deer girls and then an alliance with a not French bride for his son, was too much, for the people, her great show of wealth thought right for court audiences, were to the person with a starving child or no money for bread a terrible goad. A lot of it plays on themes that are more familiar to historical costumers than historians--the heavy, traditional formal court dress against which Antoinette rebelled; allowing Rose Bertin (a commoner dressmaker) into the Queen's private chambers for fashion advice; the public's shock at the famous 1783 chemise portrait, etc.As a scholar first and fashionista second, she drew me into the political saga of the French Revolution, but always faithfully brought it right back around to fashion and the ways women--especially Marie Antionette--leveraged their power by what they chose to wear on their bodies.