Note the title of this exhibition. It’s Marie Antoinette style, not the woman, not the reality behind the caricature. It really is about Marie Antoinette as clothes horse and style-setter with the occasional aside about her reputation and the scandals that surrounded her right through to her gruesome end.
It’s divided into three parts, the first being contemporary material of the period including items belonging to the queen, the second, the afterlife of Marie Antoinette when her cult was revived by the Empress Eugenie, the third, modern interpretations of the Marie Antoinette style. As the curators point out, the style of her period is invariably described in reference to her husband, but it was she who was the real style-maker.
