Marie also helped popularise the Robe a la Francaise, also known as a “sack-back gown,” made popular by Louis XV’s famous mistress Madame Pompadour. Pannier skirts, known as the guardainfante, were much sought after, but impractical, constructed on an enormously wide frame that was sometimes up to 16 feet in diameter, above which waists were pulled into tiny, restricting corsets.Ī 1785 portrait shows Queen Marie Antoinette with her two eldest children at Versailles Marie embraced the rising trends for Rococo style, which was filled with pale, pastel toned silks, heavily layered skirts and ornate decorative elements including jewels, ribbons and ruffles.
Immediately thrown into the opulent, indulgent realms of Versailles, Marie was fascinated by the heady mix of fashion, politics and power, and it wasn’t long before she became the leader of courtly fashion.
On the border between Austria and France, she had to change into French clothing to make the right first impression, an experience that taught her the curious power of clothing in upholding nationality. Marie was just 14 years old when she was sent to France to marry King Louis XVI. Often portrayed throughout history as a naive party-girl, Marie’s obsession with clothing was also a powerful form of self-expression, exposing to the world her determined, if reckless, streak of independence.
The Austrian-born royal was thrust into the heart of Versailles from a young age, and quickly learned how to dress to impress as the country’s new Queen. Queen of frivolity and excess, Marie-Antoinette led Rococo fashion with huge, poufy hairstyles, enormous pannier skirts and all manner of decorative frills, feathers and bows. Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun, 1778
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