There is probably only a small number of queens from history which most people know of. Queen Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) was definitely among the most famous. She was known not just for her tragic story but as one of the foremost fashion trendsetters of her day.  Her style continues to inspire designers, nearly 250 years after her death.

Marie Antoinette's fashion phases include the high Rococo style with large poufy hairdos and huge panniered (side extensions) gowns done in decorative overdrive with bows, frills and feathers. This reproduction of the Le Brun 1778 portrait shows just how over the top the French court dress was. 

Marie Antoinette at age 23

She is also famous for her spectacular jewelry.  Shown at the top is the Marie Antoinette inspired multiple pearl drop necklace by IlovelyCraft. 

These rococo inspired earrings by LesPerlesdAntoinette has the bow element so favored by Marie Antoinette's early fashion style. This designer has many designs besides this one, all inspired in some way from old portraits of that era. Bows were very, very popular.


This Marie Antoinette rococo inspired pink necklace from VictoriaNevermore reminds me of the Sutherland diamonds (see story below) which are thought to have come from the infamous "Affair of the Necklace" piece. 


You don't have to be student of fashion or history to appreciate this unique Marie Antoinette enamel pin from the talented illustrator, Becky of SketchInc.


These beautiful handmade ceramic flower garland pendants feature Marie Antoinette. The designer and maker is PoppyBis. 


These beautiful Marie Antoinette vintage imitation porcelain cabochons are from DeLuxeVintageStones.  I've featured them before and highly recommend them for a fantastic and gorgeous range of vintage supplies. 



FRANCE'S TRAGIC QUEEN

Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) was the last Queen of France before the monarchy was toppled by the French Revolution. The youngest daughter of the powerful Hapsburg rulers of the Austrian Empire, she married the Dauphin (heir), the future Louis XVI, in 1770 when she was 14 and he, 15.

Marie Antoinette & Louis XVI (in their twenties)

The marriage was deeply unpopular with the French people. Austria was their traditional enemy and they were highly suspicious - and rightly so - of her Austrian influence on French affairs. The unfortunate fact that their marriage remained unconsummated for 7 long years added to their hostility. After all, the main function of a queen is to produce the next heir to the throne. 

Louis XVI was the polar opposite of his very lusty predecessors. Had he lived today, he may well have been diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum. Marie Antoinette did care for her husband and he in turn, depended on her for support.

Marie Antoinette, the foreign outsider,  became the symbol of everything that was wrong with France. She was constantly criticized no matter what she did. She was THE trendsetter of her day and was profligate spender. Even when she tried to dress less lavishly as shown in the Le Brun portrait below, people thought the informal attire inappropriate for a royal. 

The infamous Affair of the Diamond Necklace placed the blame on her for trying to defraud the Crown jewelers. In reality, Marie Antoinette refused the gift and the rest was the work of a con artist.

Age 28,1783 portrait

She was compassionate and loved children. She adopted four orphans including first freeing an enslaved black boy. The children led to accusations of promiscuity and bearing illegitimate young. She and her husband did go on to have four children of their own, two of whom died young. 

It didn't help that she fell deeply in love with a dashing Swede, Count Axel von Fresen, and he with her when they met when they were both 19. There were rumors about one of her children being his but there is no proof beyond surviving letters which show their very close emotional relationship. 

Count Hans Axel von Fresen the Younger

She did spend lavishly on clothes, jewelry, accessories, luxuries and gambled at a time when ordinary citizens were suffering. She might have been tone deaf but she never ever said "Let them eat cake".  The French people were literally starving - the Flour Wars or riots of 1775 occurred because the price of wheat skyrocketed, made worse by the withholding of public grain supplies from royal stores.  This was the prelude to the revolution that was to come.

There were 3 estates in pre-revolutionary France- namely the Clergy, the Nobility and the Commoners. The first two classes possessed enormous advantages including paying very little taxes and they made sure things stayed that way. The increasing tax burden and social inequality placed on ordinary people became intolerable. The biggest reason, by a huge margin, for France's deep financial crisis, was not Marie Antoinette's spending but the country's continual funding of many wars, including the American War of Independence and the excessive spending of previous monarchs. 

According to this BBC report, Marie Antoinette's wardrobe budget was about $1 million in today's money but France spent $11.25 billion on just the American War of Independence alone. 

Still, she was blamed and nicknamed "Madam Deficit". 

The nation's political, financial and social distress deepened and the crisis boiled over. The French Revolution began in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille, a fortress which was also a political prison and more importantly, a symbol of the monarch's abuse of power. 

The royal family was imprisoned. There were plots to rescue them but these failed. Louis XVI was executed in early 1793.  She was overwhelmed with grief, barely spoke or ate and her hair turned prematurely grey with the stress.

Later that year, they removed her 8-year-old son, nominally Louis XVII, from her care after threatening to kill her daughter if she did not let him go. The weeping little boy was taken from her arms into separate confinement nearby. His distraught mother was haunted by the sound of his inconsolable sobbing.  He was beaten and forced to accuse his mother of incest. He died of illness, the result of cruel neglect in prison, two years later. (Her daughter survived to adulthood).

Marie Antoinette's trial in October 1793 found her guilty of the three main charges against her: conspiring with foreign powers, the depletion of the state treasury, and of committing high treason by acting against the security of the French state. Her fate was already decided before the trial.

Dressed in a simple white gown, a pale and sickly Marie Antoinette kept her composure in the cart which took her to the guillotine. She was just 37.

EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS

London's famed Victoria and Albert Museum's Marie Antoinette Style Exhibition is currently on display until March 22, 2026. It celebrates this tragic queen's tremendous influence on fashion, not just in her time (late18th century) but in the nearly 250 years since.

The V&A has in its collection the Sutherland Diamonds which are thought to be from part of the infamous diamond necklace which contributed to her downfall.  The diamonds passed through the hands of "the mistress of Louis XV, a con woman, a Cardinal, and one of the British aristocracy’s great families". The history of these diamonds have fascinated and inspired many including Alexandre Dumas' 1849  book, The Queen's Necklace and the 2001 movie, The Affair of the Necklace, starring Hilary Swank. 

Museum nos M.10:1 to 3-2022 © Victoria and Albert Museum


Also on display at the exhibition is the beaded pink silk slippers which once belonged to her.

© Photo: CC0 Paris Musées / Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris

Marie Antoinette's actual 1770 wedding dress no longer exists. But there is one surviving wedding dress from her time on display at the Exhibition. This 1774 wedding gown - silver thread embroidered on silk, was worn by a future queen of Sweden. It is remarkably similar to the description of Marie Antoinette's own wedding gown.  The tiny waist is not due to corsetry but the fact that royal brides were just children in their teens when they got married. They were merely pawns in the geopolitical power game.


An overview of the Exhibition :


Before You Go:

jewelry making supplies

Disclosure 

This blog may contain affiliate links. I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation. 
 ______________________________ 
Original Post by THE BEADING GEM