Marie Antoinette Style (The Official V&A Exhibition Book) – 9781838510541

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.