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For almost 250 years, Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France from 1774 to 1792, has been inspiring the fashions of the era. In the 18th century, her influence was directly felt in the courts of Louis XVI, and her love of exorbitant attire put her couturier Rose Bertin on the map, to the extent that everyone went to Bertin in an attempt to dress like royalty.
If Marie Antoinette wore it, you wore it too, and you hoped to gain her attention in court (or at the very least hoped to not be snubbed by the notoriously hard-to-please queen). It was certainly an exhilarating time for fashion, until it all came crashing down. Her love of opulent fashion, decadent cakes, and lavish parties cost the kingdom everything. It’s easy to see why her lifestyle has seized upon our conscious, even in the present day – we all love a good dose of drama with our clothes. Since Marie Antoinette’s day, designers have been mimicking, reinterpreting, and improving upon styles inspired by “Madame Déficit” from her impossible hoop skirts and empire-waist gowns to her extravagantly embroidered footwear and diamond-layered accoutrements.
Big Hair
As the saying goes, the bigger the hair, the closer you are to god. In Marie Antoinette's case, no woman was closer to godliness than she was, as not only the Queen of France, but also has the country's leader in fashionable hairstyles.To have one's hair curled, powdered, and then made huge and grand by the help of expensive wigs was all the rage, and having big hair became a symbol of status and ultimately style. It makes sense, then, that Marie Antoinette's personal hairstylist, Leonard, was also one of her closest friends and intimates. Today, having big, bouncy curly hair is something many of us don and desire, whether it's in the form of long, luscious mermaid hair, or short, sassy bobs — the bigger, the better.
Pastel Hair
Pastel coloured hair has been all the rage for the past few years, but these lovely locks were made popular first by the French court of Marie Antoinette. It was very fashionable for royals and aristocrats to dye or powder their hair (and more commonly, their wigs) to make it appear a more fashionable colour. "Strawberry blonde" was a popular colour to have one's hair at this time, which would result in a pastel-peach-like colour on fair hair and powdered wigs. Today, the love of pastel-coloured hair continues.
Flower Crowns
Way before Lana Del Rey, flower crowns and hair accessories were made popular by Marie Antoinette, who would decorate her grand, extravagant hairdos with not only flowers, but also feathers, fake birds, pearls, lace, diamonds, boats, and other such toys. Having flowers in one's hair was incredibly fashionable at the French court of Marie Antoinette, and today we remain inspired by the style and walk around everywhere with flowers in our hair.
Beauty Spots
In the extravagant court of Marie Antoinette, the French courtiers enjoyed a little fashionable playfulness by the way of artificial beauty marks. Both sexes would stick on mouches (French for "flies") in the shapes of hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades (cards were an extremely popular past-time during this epoch), as well as other obscure shapes on their faces. Today, artificial beauty marks are also quite popular (especially with women who enjoy playing with makeup) and are often donned in the form of a drawn-on heart or a stick-on rhinestone.
Floral Prints
Marie Antoinette loved nature, and her tastes were very much inspired by it. One of her favourite things was flowers, and not only did she love to have flowers surrounding her or wearing them in her hair, but she also loved to have tapestries and furniture covered with flowers, too. Flowers were embroidered onto chairs and furniture, and floral fabric covered the walls. Today, we also love things that come in a floral print, including: wallpaper, bedding, clothing, furniture, teacups, etc. If it's floral print, chances are we love it.
Boho Fashion
Although Marie Antoinette ruled the world of luxurious, elegant French fashion, there were times when she craved nature and simplicity. Thus, the "Petit Trianon" was gifted to Marie Antoinette by her husband, King Louis XVI, as a retreat away from the confines of etiquette and expectation at Versailles.
Here, Marie Antoinette had a fake peasant village (including cottages and livestock) created for her, where she could pretend to live the life of a peasant. In true bohemian fashion, she wore simple, looser-fitting flowing white gowns and tended to wear her hair natural, rather than done up in all its regular pomp and glory. Today, bohemian fashion remains one of the most popular styles for summer, and still takes a page from the the Book-of-Boho influences and inspiration of Marie Antoinette.
Glam Heels
In Marie Antoinette's day, both men and women wore heels. It was quite fashionable (and normal) for a courtier's shoes to be lavishly decorated with sensuous fabrics, ribbons, lace, bows, and jewels.
Heels became extremely popular in France with King Louis XIV, and no one at court was allowed to have heels "higher than the king." On top of this, all of the nobles wore shoes with red soles (which is perhaps where Christian Louboutin gets his influence). Today, glamorous heels continue to be of the utmost importance in fashion, desired and displayed with the same pomp and extravagance as the French court of Marie Antoinette.
OTT Furniture
Versailles. You really don't get more lavish, gorgeous, or over the top than the famous French palace last inhabited by Marie Antoinette. Every chair, every vase, every table was so intricately carved, painted, and gilded, it takes one's breath away at every glance — almost overwhelmingly so.
Today, we take a little from the style of Versailles by the way of having an ornate piece of furniture or two in our homes — usually in the style of an ornate couch, chandelier, or more commonly, an ornate mirror.
Military Jackets
These days, the concept of “uniform dressing” typically applies to jeans, T-shirts, and white sneakers. But designers are riffing on a more literal kind of uniform, the military uniform. It’s been influencing fashion since at least since King Louis of France. What’s different about the jackets we’ve seen this season (at Gucci, Burberry, Givenchy, and Balmain) is that they seem plucked not from the army surplus store, but from 18th-century Britain and France. They’re crisp; strong-shouldered; and decorated with epaulettes, brass buttons, and rope trim, plus a few modern add-ons like crystals and bows for good measure.
Lace Collars
Lace collars, cuff and hem trim were widely used in men's clothing during the 17th century. Van Dyke's paintings of French and English aristocrats show the elaborate lace work. The French king Louis XIV and the English king Charles I dressed with elaborate lace collars and trims. We note both boys a girls wearing lace collars. And we see lace being used in the 18th century, even the early-19th century for both men and boys, at least the well-to-do. At mid-century, male dress became more more plain. We continue to see women and girls wearing lace collars. For a time in the late-19th century, lace collars were especially popular for boys as part of the Fauntleroy craze. We notice lace collars in many different shapes and sizes. Perhaps because of the cost, ruffled collars were more common., but we still see a number of lace collars. This was especially true of america, where the Fauntleroy Craze was so pronounced.