One Hour at the Museum: Marie Antoinette Style Opens at the V&A

MUSEUM GUIDE | CABANA TRAVEL | CABANA MAGAZINE

The V&A's much-anticipated new exhibition, Marie Antoinette Style, reframes one of history’s most polarising figures. Curated by Dr Sarah Grant, it is the first exhibition to trace the renegade queen’s aesthetic influence, not only within the gilded salons of Versailles but across centuries of fashion, decorative arts and popular culture. Dr. Sarah Grant, Senior Curator of Marie Antoinette Style, talks Cabana through six of the exhibition's most notable objects.

INTERVIEW BY EMMA BECQUE| CABANA TRAVEL | 17 SEPTEMBER 2025

Film still from Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. Photo courtesy of I WANT CANDY LLC. and Zoetrope Corp.

Marie Antoinette has long occupied a peculiar place in our imagination: the doomed queen with towering coiffures, pastel-woven silks and porcelain boudoirs, as much a fictionalised archetype as a historical figure. Here, the perspective is different. “We’ve tried to make her seem a bit more human and less of a caricature,” Dr Grant explains. “To try and tell her story.”

The installed galleries gleam with textiles, porcelain and portraits that reveal the queen as both subject and muse. Each piece on display unpacks her likeness, her silhouette and her aura, which became inseparable from the style she embodied.

Portrait of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, in a court dress. Oil painting by François Hubert Drouais, 1773 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

"Designers continue to draw on these visual codes today, in couture, interiors and pop culture", muses Dr Grant. Sofia Coppola’s film Marie Antoinette (2006), Moschino’s playful reimaginings, Dior’s extravagant gowns and Rihanna’s Fenty collections all demonstrate how her image continues to inspire.

“Whether you admire her style, whether you sympathise with her, whether you criticise her, what is undeniable is her influence,” says Dr Grant. “Her style has endured centuries and continually is mined by pioneers in the decorative arts and in the fashion world.” 

"Her influence is extraordinary in its reach, probably more than any other queen or any monarch, actually. What is particularly interesting is that she embodies her own unique aesthetic. It is not just the textiles, porcelain or furniture that she commissioned; it is her, her hair and her essence. I hope people will be surprised by how many things we still consider fashionable and beautiful today that originate from Marie Antoinette”.

In this spirit, Dr Sarah Grant shares her highlights from Marie Antoinette Style. 

Marie-Antoinette's chair

Marie-Antoinette's chair set © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

“I had to start with this chair, which belongs to the V&A and encapsulates Marie Antoinette's within one object,” Dr Sarah Grant explains. What is most interesting is her initiative as one of the first figures to create a personalised brand through decor. Looking closely at the chair, you will see "MA" embroidered and painted across countless possessions where she asserts herself in her environment. In retrospect, it was this incredibly successful form of early modern branding,” Dr Grant notes, “and we still associate the monogram with refinement today.”

"The chair is so intricately designed, painted white and gilded, the frame is a study in neoclassical refinement, embellished with tiny figures of Diana, goddess of the hunt, and her crescent moon. The upholstery, a bespoke violet shade she picked and particularly loved, has been reconstructed from original fragments. This was not a piece commissioned for public display but for her private dressing room at Château de Saint-Cloud, a retreat where she spent time with family and trusted friends."

The Pearl and Cornflower Service

Sevres Bol-sein ou Jatte-téton, bowl tripod support. Manufacture royale de Sèvres - Jean- Jacques Lagrenée le Jeune (1739-1821), Louis Simon Boizot (1743-1809). © Grand Palais Rmn (Sèvres - Manufacture et musée nationaux) / Martine Beck-Coppola.

"Among her most refined commissions was her Sèvres Pearl and Cornflower Service. This is probably considered one of the masterpieces of eighteenth-century French porcelain. Having just one set of Sèvres in your possession was considered quite the accomplishment,” Dr Grant explains.

"The service was designed exclusively for the queen, with Marie Antoinette being the only person to have ever owned this set. Comprising 295 pieces, each hand-painted and gilded, showcasing a scattering of wild cornflowers paired with delicate strings of iridescent pearls, her favourite jewel. The majority of the set was lost during the revolution, meaning our curators have been painstakingly researching and acquiring the missing pieces for the past years. 

Blue Silk 18th-century Chiné Gown

Kate Moss, Fashion: Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Julian d'Ys, The Ritz, Paris 2012. [photographs of Kate Moss at the Paris Ritz for Vogue US April 2012 issue] © Tim Walker.

One of the exhibition’s textile highlights is an 18th-century sackback chiné gown from the V&A’s collection. "The silk is remarkable: a luminous blue with fine white stripes, woven using the chiné technique to create a subtle, blurred effect. It is decorated with bows, bouquets of roses, and motifs that appear repeatedly in her 1782 wardrobe book." 

"[Marie Antoinette] had many silks like this,” says Dr Grant, “and I just love it. With its flowing silhouette and sumptuous fabric, the gown exemplifies both her unique style and the craftsmanship behind such a special technique."

Pearl and Diamond Pendant

Marie-Antoinette's Pearl jewels. Heidi Horten Collection. © Sotheby's / Bridgeman Images.

Jewels tell their own story of Marie Antoinette’s preferences. “Pearls were her favourite jewel,” Dr Grant explains. “They are organic and naturally striking, unlike diamonds, which have to be cut and faceted. Her pearl and diamond pendant, which set a world auction record in 2018, is a dazzling example. The irridescent pearl drop is framed by a perfect set of diamonds to create the iconic bow shape she was synonymous with." 

Portrait of Marie Antoinette à la rose

Portrait de Marie-Antoinette à la rose, Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun © Château de Versailles, Dist. Grand Palais RMN / Christophe Fouin.

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun’s celebrated 'Rose' portrait is perhaps the most famous portrait of Marie Antoinette in the world,” Dr Grant explains. Shown in the exhibition, it is a special loan from Versailles; the queen appears in a steel-blue silk gown, luminous and serene." Painted to soften her public image at a time of criticism, the portrait has outlasted politics to become the defining visual of the queen. It exemplifies her ability to control her own representation and to turn portraiture into an extension of her style.

Fragment of a Court Gown

Fragments of a court gown belonging to Marie Antoinette © Victoria and Albert Museum.

"Versailles was looted upon Marie Antoinette was arrested. Members of the public had cut her dresses to sell small fragments. This fragment is equistite, originating from a formal peticoat, featuring artisanal embroidery and embellishment,” Dr Grant explains. 

"X-rays of the textile revealed the sequins are solid silver and gold, and all the thread is silver and gold thread. It is the most wonderfully radiant garment in the light,” she says. "It is imperative that visitors view at this piece under the spotlight and in person to see it glint in the light."

Toile de Jouy 

Costume, Andrea Grossi. Photo: Courtesy Andrea Grossi.

Dr Grant highlights Toile de Jouy, a fabric that shaped both interiors and dress. “She was queen of Toile de Jouy, at the time giving royal warrants and her stamp of approval for makers. Her inventories are filled with examples, used for more informal rooms such as boudoirs, dressing rooms and country retreats, as well as in her wardrobe."

"A pink Toile de Jouy fabric dress was the very last thing Marie Antoinette bought in prison before her execution. In the exhibition, delicate furnishing fabrics sit alongside extraordinary designs, one such piece is incredible, showcasing a remarkable piece which was commissioned a year ahead of the revolution, where Marie Antoinette herself appears woven into the pattern with the king during a ceremony, their children and even the family dog." 

Accessories and scents

Antonietta, 2005 by Manolo Blahnik.

“We have a section on scent and perfume,” Dr Grant explains. “We look at Marie Antoinette’s scent and her toiletry products, where intimate objects remind us of her daily rituals, the private world behind the public image. Their design is refined yet personal, proof that her sense of style extended to every aspect of her life, from the grandest commissions to the smallest bottles on her dressing table.” “We look at shoes, we look at fans,” Dr Grant notes, describing the breadth of the exhibition.

Lilac Striped Leopard Print Silk

"The exhibition focuses on animal print, which may feel like a contemporary fashion statement, but Marie Antoinette helped bring it into fashion. During her reign, she wore tiger print when riding, along with fashioning zebra and leopard print across many of her garments,” Dr Grant explains.

One striking example in the exhibition is a lilac-striped leopard-print silk from the V&A. Its playful stripes and spots would have made a daring gown, challenging convention at court. By adopting such patterns, the queen aligned herself with the exotic and the modern, a fashion leader rather than a follower. Today, animal print still carries an aura of boldness and glamour, a legacy with roots in her wardrobe.

Marie Antoinette Style opens at the V&A, South Kensington, on Saturday 20 September 2025 in Galleries 38 and 39.