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Marie Antoinette to be subject of Manolo Blahnik-sponsored V&A exhibition
Portrait of Marie Antoinette with a rose, Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun Credits: © Château de Versailles, Dist. Grand Palais RMN Christophe Fouin / V&A. Marie Antoinette is to get her own dedicated exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert museum, where 250 objects associated with the fashionable French queen’s life will be on display, some for the first time outside of France. Set to take place between September 20, 2025, and March 22, 2026, ‘Marie Antoinette Style’ will be the first UK exhibition to explore the ill-fated queen’s influence on fashion, design and film. Of the objects to be displayed, including “exceptional loans” from the Château de Versailles, where Antoinette once resided, are that of personal items owned or worn by Antoinette, including silk slippers, jewels from her private collection and a final note she wrote prior to her death. To demonstrate her impact, contemporary clothing from design houses like Moschino, Dior, Chanel and Vivienne Westwood will also be shown, as will costumes made from screen, such as pieces from Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette film. Antonietta, 2005 by Manolo Blahnik. Credits: V&A. The V&A said it intends to “consider afresh the legacy of a complex figure whose style, youth and notoriety have all contributed to her timeless appeal”. At its core, the exhibition looks to trace Antoinette’s cultural impact, beginning in 1770, prior to her becoming queen, and ending in 1793, when she was executed after being convicted of treason against the French Republic. V&A to ‘consider afresh the legacy of a complex figure’ As such, the exhibition begins at the section ‘The Origins of Style’, in which the first traces of Antoinette’s style are explored as she forged her position as queen consort. This is followed by ‘The Birth of a Style Cult’, diving into the revival of Antoinette’s style in the mid-1800s, when the late queen came into a romanticised view amid a growing wave of interest towards her life, contributing to trends like the ‘French Revival’. Boué Soeurs (Sylvie and Jeanne Boué) dress. Credits: Designmuseum Denmark, Photo by Pernille Klemp / V&A. The third section, ‘Enchantment and Illusion’, brings visitors into the late 19th century, when Antoinette’s style “entered a new phase of fantasy, magic and fairy tales”, the V&A said. This will be followed up by ‘Marie Antoinette Re-Styled’, in which her influence is brought into the perspective of the 20th century and the present day, during which Antoinette continues to inspire pop culture, performance and fashion. Costume, Andrea Grossi. Credits: Andrea Grossi / V&A. In a statement, curator of the exhibition, Sarah Grant, said: “The most fashionable, scrutinised and controversial queen in history, Marie Antoinette’s name summons both visions of excess and objects and interiors of great beauty. The Austrian archduchess turned Queen of France had an enormous impact on European taste and fashion in her own time, creating a distinctive style that now has universal appeal and application. “This exhibition explores that style and the figure at its centre, using a range of exquisite objects belonging to Marie Antoinette, alongside the most beautiful fine and decorative objects that her legacy has inspired. This is the design legacy of an early modern celebrity and the story of a woman whose power to fascinate has never ebbed. Marie Antoinette’s story has been re-told and re-purposed by each successive generation to suit its own ends. The rare combination of glamour, spectacle and tragedy she presents remains as intoxicating today as it was in the eighteenth century.” Wedding gown of Duchess Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta (later Queen of Sweden). Credits: Göran Schmidt Livrustkammaren, SHM (CC BY 4.0) / V&A.
Marie Antoinette is to get her own dedicated exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert museum, where 250 objects associated with the fashionable French queen’s life will be on display, some for the first time outside of France. Set to take place between September 20, 2025, and March 22, 2026, ‘Marie Antoinette Style’ will be the first UK exhibition to explore the ill-fated queen’s influence on fashion, design and film.
Of the objects to be displayed, including “exceptional loans” from the Château de Versailles, where Antoinette once resided, are that of personal items owned or worn by Antoinette, including silk slippers, jewels from her private collection and a final note she wrote prior to her death. To demonstrate her impact, contemporary clothing from design houses like Moschino, Dior, Chanel and Vivienne Westwood will also be shown, as will costumes made from screen, such as pieces from Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette film.
The V&A said it intends to “consider afresh the legacy of a complex figure whose style, youth and notoriety have all contributed to her timeless appeal”. At its core, the exhibition looks to trace Antoinette’s cultural impact, beginning in 1770, prior to her becoming queen, and ending in 1793, when she was executed after being convicted of treason against the French Republic.
V&A to ‘consider afresh the legacy of a complex figure’
As such, the exhibition begins at the section ‘The Origins of Style’, in which the first traces of Antoinette’s style are explored as she forged her position as queen consort. This is followed by ‘The Birth of a Style Cult’, diving into the revival of Antoinette’s style in the mid-1800s, when the late queen came into a romanticised view amid a growing wave of interest towards her life, contributing to trends like the ‘French Revival’.
The third section, ‘Enchantment and Illusion’, brings visitors into the late 19th century, when Antoinette’s style “entered a new phase of fantasy, magic and fairy tales”, the V&A said. This will be followed up by ‘Marie Antoinette Re-Styled’, in which her influence is brought into the perspective of the 20th century and the present day, during which Antoinette continues to inspire pop culture, performance and fashion.
In a statement, curator of the exhibition, Sarah Grant, said: “The most fashionable, scrutinised and controversial queen in history, Marie Antoinette’s name summons both visions of excess and objects and interiors of great beauty. The Austrian archduchess turned Queen of France had an enormous impact on European taste and fashion in her own time, creating a distinctive style that now has universal appeal and application.
“This exhibition explores that style and the figure at its centre, using a range of exquisite objects belonging to Marie Antoinette, alongside the most beautiful fine and decorative objects that her legacy has inspired. This is the design legacy of an early modern celebrity and the story of a woman whose power to fascinate has never ebbed. Marie Antoinette’s story has been re-told and re-purposed by each successive generation to suit its own ends. The rare combination of glamour, spectacle and tragedy she presents remains as intoxicating today as it was in the eighteenth century.”
