Marie Antoinette had a great influence on fashion all over Europe in the XVIII century. Even today, her feminine baroque style inspires designers and artists all over the world. Stunning floral dresses, blush pink lingerie, flirty ribbons, bows, cute ruffles, selected perfumes and other items that are fit to the queen now are available to you! Check out my curated Theme Shop with hand selected items that Marie Antoinette would certainly love.
The 6th Week on Pastiche.today is dedicated to probably the most fashionable and famous queen of France - beautiful Marie Antoinette. Her extravagant, over the top lavishing lifestyle, expensive tastes and lively personality made her one of the most scandalous figure of the 18th century. During her reign, the queen spent enormous amounts of money on myriads of fancy dresses, shoes and jewellery and parties. Thus, led to her extreme unpopularity among the common people and fuelled the French Revolution that changed the history of France forever. In 1793 the King Louis xvi and his wife, the Queen Marie Antoinette have been executed by guillotine on Place de la Revolution,
I have selected the most interesting facts about Marie Antoinette that you might never heard about! Here are
It is a common mistake when people think that Marie Antoinette was French. She was born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna and was the 15th child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia – the rulers of Austria. At home they called her Antonia, but after she moved to France, she changed her name to something more française, to Marie Antoinette.
Future queen of France was growing up showing a great potential. Marie played the harpsichord, spinet, clavichord, and harp. She could speak German, French and Italian. She was also a very beautiful, graceful dancer and a talented singer. The only thing she was scolded all the time for was her poor handwriting.
Marie Antoinette was betrothed to Louis XVI of France when she was just 12. During the negotiations, the French court had made unpleasant comments about Austrian princess' appearance, noting that her teeth are crooked. Apparently it was a serious obstacle, therefore French doctor Pierre Laveran was immediately commissioned to perform very complicated and painful oral surgeries to perfect Marie's smile. These surgeries were performed on 12 years old Marie without anaesthesia and took several months in total before she could smile back at her haters, showing new straight and beautiful teeth.
The surgeries and puberty transformed Marie into one beautiful, elegant creature. When she arrived to France at the age of 14 people loved her for her beauty and admired her bright blue eyes, porcelain white skin and ash-blonde hair.
Marie Antoinette and Louis-Auguste were married for 7 years before they finally became intimate with each other. It is believed that the dauphin was suffering from a painful medical condition that made him impotent. The gossip about the "fake" marriage was circulating all around Europe. After many years, the rather piquant and peculiar problem was resolved either by a surgery, or by other mysterious interference in the Royal chambers. Within a year, Marie bore the first princess of the couple's 4 children.
Famous Parisian hairdresser Leonard was so in demand that he could not leave his salon in Paris often enough even for the Queen herself. He had appointments with her only on Sundays at a very strict time.
Leonard is responsible for creating Marie Antoinette's the most iconic hairstyle - the pouf. The pouf was almost like a mood-board, expressing political messages, favouriting people and fashion trends, through intricate shapes and extravagant accessories. For example, Marie Antoinette wore a big sailing ship hairstyle to celebrate the alliance between France and the American colonists.
The first permanent settlement of the Northwest Territory in 1788 was named in honour of France and the French queen, Marietta. Marietta was an affectionate nickname for the Queen. The city hasn't changed the name since and is located in the state of Ohio.
Bathing was one of the greatest luxuries of that time, and while most people bathed once a year. Marie had a daily baths with aromatic oils in her private bathroom. Marie would sleep wearing gloves coated with a mixture of wax, rose water and sweet almond oil to keep her hands soft and young.
Marie Antoinette also had an envious wardrobe as she ordered about 300 gowns a year. She also purchased shoes, jewellery, accessories, hats, make up products, expensive perfumes, essential oils and other "beautiful thing" almost every single day! She was also a heavy gambler and spent close to $7 million dollars by today's standards on her "pleasure house". Her unpopularity with the French crowd was growing as fast as her bills.
Before the French Revolution threats, Marie was not heavily involved in political decisions, and as she often wrote, had a very little influence over her husband's decisions. However, when revolution was about to break out in France, the Queen started actively seeking ways to save her family and the monarchy why the King remained indecisive and apathetic. She was meeting with ministers and ambassadors, was writing to other Royals seeking for military support. Many was offering help to the Queen, however she was refusing to escape France without her entire family. Unfortunately, their only attempt to escape was a late made decision, and they were all captured within 24 hours.
Unfortunately, Marie Antoinette was beheaded on October 16, 1793. Her last words are reported to have been, “Pardon me, sir, I did not mean to do it”, when she accidentally stepped on the executioner’s foot while climbing the scaffold.
Check tomorrow for more curated Marie Antoinette theme inspired items!
Princess Leia (or shall we call her General Leia after the Force Awakens?) is one of the most iconic characters in film history. Her sultry slave costume look is still on my list of 'Halloween outfits to wear' and her hairstyles are hard to forget (and recreate too!)
The most memorable Leia's hairstyle is side buns, and they were apparently inspired by photographs of native American women. These ones in particular:
I wanted to try 'Leia's side buns' hairstyle for a long time, and I finally managed to find great video tutorials and got a help from a friend Agnes. And I am so happy with the results!
At the beginning I was planning to wear a white turtleneck dress, similar to what Leia wore in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, however, I thought it would be more challenging and fun if I wear something Star Wars inspired, but more appropriate for New York and our galaxy :)
My Look:
Top - Walter Baker, Long vest - Walter Baker, Jeans - Levi's, Shoes - Jeffrey Campbell
Every Themed Week has its own Themed Shop, and now you can see the best hand picked STAR WARS items!
I won't lie, it has been quite a challenge for me to create a Star Wars inspired look without looking like a cosplay girl. I love cosplay and will definitely try few 'roles' on in the future, however a really good costume takes a lot of time to custom-made, and it is definitely not a cheap option (high quality Jedi costume is,in average, over 300$).
So I have decided to wear something that I can imagine someone wearing in Star Wars' realm. My choice fell on this beautiful real suede Walter Baker dress.
The rain on Monday was absolutely crazy, therefore my attempt on creating a mesh-up version of Leia's and Rey's hairstyle was a little bit ruined. Despite all that, I believe the photographs turned out to be fun, my hair is appropriate to the theme and the Central Park indeed looks like the planet of Endor. By the way, I left some little silly story under the pictures. Check it out and let me know what do you think :)
The Force is strong with me! New female Jedi has arrived :)
General Leia's maid did my hair. Do you like it?
C'mon, Chewy. I know you miss Hans Solo, but we need to keep going!
R2D2, did you hear that? I think someone is following us!
Chewy, R2, Run! You need to deliver the message to Luke and Rey! I will distract whoever is out there.
Oh, captain, how kind of you to offer me this Ewok fur jacket! Yes, I am here all by myself. Haven't seen anyone, sir. Would you want me to show you the way to the city? (leads the captain in the opposite direction of where her friends ran).
