Royals have long been lauded for their fashion choices. And there couldn’t be a finer example of the fervour that still surrounds the wardrobes of modern monarchs than the State Banquet that took place at Windsor Castle on Wednesday evening (17 September 2025). King Charles III may have been hosting US President Donald Trump, but it was Kate, Princess of Wales, who stole the show. Dressed in a shimmering cream lace couture gown by British designer Phillipa Lepley, and adorned with the pearl-laden Lover’s Knot tiara, she was every inch the vision of a princess. 

On Thursday, the UK woke to nearly every national newspaper printing photographs of not only Kate’s, but also Queen Camilla’s fashion choices – she opted for a royal blue Fiona Clare dress – on their front pages, proving our appetite for royal fashion remains as boundless as ever. Delve into the history books, however, and you’ll find this obsession with how royals dress is nothing new – but it does stem from one queen in particular: Marie Antoinette. 

“‘It is true that I care a little in my adornment’ was the 19-year-old queen’s understated response to […] her mother, Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, about her love of fashion. But as Maria Theresa also reminded her young daughter, ‘All eyes will be on you’, for fashion was a form of social currency and soft power,” explains Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A, of the South Kensington gallery’s latest exhibition, Marie Antoinette: Style, which opens on 20 September 2025. Married at the tender age of 14 to the future French king, Louis XVI, and having ascended the throne at 17, she is remembered (among other things) as the queen who taught the world that fashion could be fun. 

Portrait of Marie-Antoinette with a rose, Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun. Image: Château de Versailles, Dist. Grand Palais RMN/Christophe Fouin

Image: V&A

From the moment she arrived in France in 1770 as the intended of the dauphin (the heir to the French throne), there was an emphasis on how she should dress. Her native Austria had paid 400,000 livres for a trousseau (the clothes, linens and belongings of a bride) made in Paris, but regardless, she was reportedly stripped down to her underwear before crossing the border and redressed in the finest French fashion. The court, believing itself to be the ultimate arbiter of taste and refinement, had no idea what it had let itself in for.

As she settled into life in France, Antoinette was assigned a ‘minister of fashion’, Rose Bertin. One of the most influential figures in the royal’s wardrobe, Bertin worked out of Versailles and created the whopping 300 dresses that Antoinette commissioned each year. All eyes, in the court and beyond, were on Antoinette and so she pushed boundaries with lavish fabrics and striking silhouettes. She reportedly never wore anything twice and it was these displays of opulence that won her great fame and adoration before ultimately leading to her demise.

Stylist Shauna Colaci says: “Bertin [was] essentially the world’s first celebrity stylist and [Antoinette] used fashion to craft her image, control how she was seen, and influence culture far beyond the palace gates. Her pastel palettes, ribbons, pearls, and rococo embellishments live on in modern aesthetics like #coquette, #royalcore, and #balletcore. She represents something we still crave today – the right to adorn ourselves for pleasure. There’s something intoxicating about her unapologetic indulgence, especially in a world where women are so often told to shrink, tone down, or ‘be practical’.”

The styles most synonymous with Antoinette are poufs – a dramatic towering hairstyle adorned with ribbons, feathers, jewels, and once even a recreation of a French warship – and her penchant for pastels. Colaci says: “One of the most iconic examples is her portrait in the chemise à la reine – a soft, muslin gown that resembled undergarments. It caused scandal at the time because a queen was expected to wear structured, elaborate court dresses. But that moment was powerful: it showed a woman choosing comfort, softness, and self-expression over expectation. That energy still speaks to us now, especially in a post-pandemic world where comfort, romanticism, and emotional styling have become centre stage.”

Image: V&A

Image: V&A

Despite the frivolity, Antoinette’s life was certainly not all sunshine and roses. She was often the object of slander; her close friendships were twisted into lesbian relationships and she was falsely accused of incest, though, admittedly, her gambling, dancing, drinking and rather blatant adultery did nothing to help her reputation. By the time the French Revolution began in 1789, she was the target of intense vitriol and, essentially, the most hated woman in France. History, however, does look back on her kindly, crediting her as one of the leading figures that made Paris the fashion capital it is today. 

Having made her mark on the world, albeit to an extent that even she could never truly have appreciated, Antoinette’s life was cut short when she was guillotined in 1793. “Unimaginable luxury in the landscape of inequality has political consequences,” adds Hunt. 

Moschino AW20, Milan Fashion Week. Image: PIXELFORMULA/SIPA/Shutterstock

Film still from Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. Image: I WANT CANDY/LLC/Zoetrope Corp

“And for all the glamour and spectacle, there is also the tragedy of the young queen losing her head, aged just 37. As she approached the end of her brief life, she reflected, ‘We have dreamt a pleasant dream, that is all’. Down the generations, that phantasmagoria of excess, diamonds, escapism and dungeons, death, motherhood, intimacy, sensuality and a form of innocence has seduced and provoked so many artists and creators.” 

That, she has. Antoinette’s sartorial supremacy can still be spotted on (and off) the runways, from Moschino's AW20 collection, for which Jeremy Scott dressed the likes of Gigi Hadid and Irina Shayk in pannier-waist dresses topped with extravagant poufs, to Madonna's 1990 MTV Awards rendition of Vogue, which saw her sport an elaborate rococo dress. Further immortalised in popular culture, Taylor Swift paid homage to Antoinette’s fashion in her music video, Bejeweled, while magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and CR Fashion Book dressed their cover muses, Kylie Jenner and Rihanna respectively, in Antoinette style (with the former famously surrounded by cake). 

Manolo Blahnik

Manolo Blahnik, sponsor of the new V&A exhibition, admits he too cannot escape Marie Antoinette’s enduring allure. Having just launched a 12-piece limited-edition capsule collection reminiscent of her elaborate style to coincide with the exhibition, he writes in the exhibition programme: “Marie Antoinette has been a recurrent source of inspiration in my work and her influence can be traced back to my earliest collections. The queen knew what she wanted to wear and certainly had her very own view of it. Every woman in the court and beyond aspired to dress like her.” 

However, as the V&A exhibition proves, it was contemporary British admirers who paid much heed to preserving Marie Antoinette’s wardrobe. Hunt explains: “After her death, it was British collectors who played a key role in preserving the late Queen’s style, snapping up her collections as they came to auction. 

“Amongst them was John Jones, whose 1882 bequest on behalf of the V&A helped to make it one of the greatest collections of 18^th century French collective arts in the world. This is why it feels so natural to host this exhibition of a woman of such style, who broke away from the ornate formalities of a rigid port etiquette to create a provocatively modern, controversial, feminine style, which designers continue to embrace today. 

“Together, with many of the queen's possessions, seen reunited for the first time since they were adorning her, the exhibition combines her infamy with her influence, balancing the sumptuous 18^th century gowns [with] contemporary fashion pieces and couture works by designers such as Moschino, Dior, Chanel and Vivienne Westwood, and, of course, the wonderful costumes designed for Sophia Coppola’s brilliant Oscar winning Marie Antoinette.”

Oil painting of Marie Antoinette by François Hubert Drouais, 1773. Image: V&A

Image: V&A

Curator Sarah Grant unearthed never-before-seen objects to pull the seminal exhibition together. “We've tried very much to place Marie Antoinette at the heart of her own story through the most personal and intimate objects that belonged to her, drawing on our own rich collections, and through generous and historic loans from French institutions. 

“For the first time, we've reassembled most of the surviving parts of the queen's wardrobe, and we've also reunited, for the first time since her death, the only very recently resurfaced jewels from her private collection with her private jewellery chest. These [are the] jewels that she packed up herself when they tried to flee France and which were then reunited with her sole surviving child.”

Tobias Kormind, managing director of Europe's online diamond jeweller, 77 Diamonds, emphasises the importance of Antoinette’s personal artefacts and jewels going on display – with some leaving France for the first time. “Marie Antoinette’s untimely death only cemented her place as one of history’s greatest style icons, and her love of luxury continues to fascinate centuries later. What struck me most at the V&A was seeing her extraordinary jewellery casket – usually kept at Versailles – displayed for the first time alongside jewels from her collection. It was remarkable to witness these treasures, once part of the royal court, reunited from across the globe. 

“What this exhibition makes clear is how enduring her influence is: Marie Antoinette’s style has inspired designers for generations, from Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel Cruise collection in 2012 to Dior’s Versailles themed jewellery collection in 2016. More than 200 years on, her legacy continues to shape design today – and with her pearl pendant alone fetching $36 million at Sotheby’s Geneva in 2018, it’s evident that her allure and impact remain timeless.”

Presented chronologically, the exhibition begins in 1770, traces Marie Antoinette’s life up to her execution in 1793, before ending with an examination of her representation in modern culture and fashion. On display is a treasure trove of exceptionally rare personal items owned and worn by Marie Antoinette, including richly embellished fragments of court dress, the queen’s own silk slippers, and the aforementioned jewels from her private collection. Other highlights which have never graced the capital before include personal effects such as the queen’s dinner service from the Petit Trianon, her accessories and intimate items from her toilette case. 

Image: V&A

Slippers belonging to Marie Antoinette. Image: CC0 Paris Musées/Musée Carnavalet/Histoire de Paris

While we can’t get enough of her style, Grant believes the former French queen continues to defy trends and remain relevant because of what she stood for. “On a broader level, Marie Antoinette mirrors our society's fascination with celebrity, with beauty, hedonism and luxury. 

“But it's her attitude of perceived, or perhaps real defiance, rebellion and independence that is especially channeled by designers today. Her story, that of a pursuit of personal happiness denied by corporate law, is one that resonates powerfully with our own generation's ideas of self expression and individuality, and above all, her style has remained eternal.”

Marie Antoinette Style opens on 20 September 2025 at the V&A South Kensington, visit vam.ac.uk

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