Full Description
'Marie Antoinette' - the very name conjures up a vibrant pastel-coloured world of excess, filled with satin shoes, rustling silks, gravity-defying hairstyles, decadent macarons, delicious intrigue and then, of course, bloody Revolution.
This ground-breaking volume first reconstructs the life and style of the captivating yet tragic Marie Antoinette - married at 14, queen at 18 and guillotined at 37 - from the intimate apartments she lived in to the scent she wore, the trends she led and the complexities of French court life. The authors draw on contemporary accounts, interiors, letters, portraits and the tantalisingly few personal possessions that remain, her shoes and fans, and fragments of cloth from her dresses.
But Marie Antoinette has remained influential long beyond her death in 1793. The book uncovers how the ill-fated Queen of France has provided a constant source of inspiration to the worlds of design, fashion, film and decorative arts - from nineteenth-century fancy dress balls, to Art Deco illustration, to the couture of John Galliano for Dior and the sumptuous movie by Sofia Coppola. It considers afresh the legacy of a complex and mis-understood figure whose style, youth and notoriety have contributed to her timeless appeal.
Contents
Forewords
Manolo Blahnik
Sofia Coppola
Antonia Fraser
Part One - Marie Antoinette: the origins of a style icon 1700-1800
1. The Queen's Petit Trianon and intimate apartments, Helene Delalex
2. Silk in the time of Marie Antoinette, Lesley Miller
3. Marie Antoinette and French court dress, Sarah Grant
4. Marie Antoinette's jewels, Vincent Meylan
5. Toiles de Jouy: Marie Antoinette and Cottagecore, Silvija Banic and Jessica Harpley
6. The role of scent in Marie Antoinette myth and memory, Sarah Grant
7. The universe at her feet, Helena Cox
8. Never without a fan, Helena Cox
9. In her own words: the fate of Marie Antoinette's letters, Catriona Seth
Part Two - Marie Antoinette Memorialised and Restyled (1800-today)
10. Eugenie and the cult of Marie
Antoinette, Alison McQueen
11. Fancy Dress balls, Susan North
12. Enchantment and illusion 1890-1930, Sarah Grant
13. Marie Antoinette and sapphic love, Daniel Slater
14. Marie Antoinette re-styled: her influence on fashion and feminism in the modern era, Oriole Cullen
15. Marie Antoinette performed, Harriet Reed
16. 'Let them Eat Cake': the birth of a myth, Colin Jones
17. Madame Tussaud and Marie Antoinette noir, Zoe Louca-Richards
Notes
Bibliography
Picture Credits
Acknowledgements
Index
