Earlier in Blogmas 2025, I shared my thoughts on the Marie Antoinette Style exhibition. It is quite possibly the best exhibition I’ve ever seen, combining the most sumptuous portraits, incredible historic items, and creative staging for a feast for the eyes and brain. (It just squeaks out the 2019 Dior exhibition.) When it comes to the V&A, they do not do anything by half, and that includes the exhibition book. Today I am sharing my Marie Antoinette Style book review and why I think everyone needs this book!
Marie Antoinette Style, Sarah Grant
‘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.
Why You Should Read This…
I should give the background on this book. Originally I was going to order the hardback version of the book when I got home from the trip so that I did not have to carry the book around all day (we also headed to Liberty London and the Royal Opera House for the ballet). However, I was so enchanted by the exhibition that I ended up buying the softcover version that day and indeed hauling it around London. (The softback is only available from the V&A, the hardback is widely available.)
The V&A exhibition books are not simple catalogues that list what is included in the exhibition. They are instead a collection of related essays penned by expert artists, curators, historians, and more. And because it is an essay collection, I would recommend it to everyone interested in Marie Antoinette, whether or not you visit the exhibition itself.
The book covers a wide range of topics, including Marie Antoinette’s life, her fashion, her legacy in death, her influence on fashion and on design, as well film adaptations of her life and more. The tragic queen had such a wide and lasting influence that we do not immediately realise- we are guided through over two hundred years of fashion history by experts who truly understand Marie Antoinette. And as a bonus, there are many items included that were not on display in the exhibition.
Is the Marie Antoinette Style exhibition book on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
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