Not only do I find the title of this new exhibition, Marie Antoinette: Styling the 18th-Century Superstar, a tad sensationalist, but I also disagree with its premise, as stated on the website of the Everson Museum:

”Although Marie Antoinette did not really create a style that was personally unique, what she did for fashion in the 1770s was to solidify, refine and intensify the rococo style created by Madame de Pompadour, favorite mistress of Louis XV. Madame de Pompadour died in 1764, 6 years before the 14-year-old princess had even arrived from Austria, leaving a rich legacy for future queens. What Marie Antoinette added to her style predecessor’s vocabulary were the concepts of Fantasy, Luxury, Exoticism."

So many errors in a few lines... Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV’s most brilliant and influential mistress, was a patroness of the arts, science and literature. But she did not single-handedly “create” the rococo style, illustrated by this photograph (below, right) from the Nissim de Camondo Museum in Paris.


And luxury and exoticism hardly waited for Marie-Antoinette’s arrival in France to pervade the tastes of the aristocracy. In particular the large-scale import of lacquers and porcelain from China had begun decades earlier.

Most of all, the reign of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette did not witness a "refinement" of the rococo style, but an abrupt reaction against it. The classicism, straight lines and simplified design of what we call the Louis XVI style stand in sharp contrast with the earlier exuberant curvatures of rococo.

How much of the neo-classical Louis XVI style was inspired by Marie-Antoinette herself remains debatable (in fact it stemmed from the discovery of the Roman cities of Pompei and Herculaenum in 1748) but, as her taste matured, the Queen promoted a style that was dramatically different from rococo.

A good example is her boudoir at the royal palace of Fontainebleau (left.) Note the exquisite mother-of-pearl table, which was part of the Marie-Antoinette exhibition last spring at the Grand Palais.

So, to go back to this “exhibition of 20th and 21st-century fashion design inspired by the 18th-century fashion aesthetic of Marie Antoinette,” is it worthwhile? I am not sure it has much to do with the real Marie-Antoinette, but if I lived nearby, I might have a peek at it.

September 20, 2008 - January 11, 2009 at the Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York