Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society Did Fashion Kill Marie Antoinette?
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Mar 24, 2026 Sarah Grant, curator at the V&A who organized the 'Marie Antoinette: Style' exhibition, discusses the queen’s wardrobes, jewellery and cultural afterlife. Hear about Versailles at the brink, why fashion mattered to court politics, towering hairstyles and muslin scandal, the Diamond Necklace affair, surviving relics like tiny shoes, and how Marie Antoinette became both reviled and endlessly admired.
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No Royal Mistress Made Her The Target
- Marie Antoinette became an unusually visible target because Louis XVI had no royal mistress.
- Without a mistress to absorb court gossip, her prominence as queen and brand ambassador amplified scrutiny and criticism.
Her Silver Wedding Gown Required Hooks
- Marie Antoinette's wedding gown was woven from solid silver with gold lace and a heavy train requiring hooks to tow it.
- The original was lost in the Revolution; the exhibition shows a near-identical surviving silver gown to evoke that ceremony.
Muslin Dresses Shifted Her Image
- Marie Antoinette popularised simpler muslin and cotton dresses that felt like modern, washable clothing.
- Muslin's cling and transparency made some portraits scandalous because it resembled underwear and suggested sensuality.