Marie Antoinette and my fairy godmother
Slice of Life
〰️
Slice of Life 〰️
a pathway to whimsy
I am currently building the universe of my next book, as well as developing the characters and what they will look like. With this series I will go in the opposite direction of my previous book, away from dark comedy or the somber corners of vampires crypts, and all the way into the magickal kingdoms and green forests of fairytales.
I plan to explore and build that universe in the same manner that medieval artists used to depict religious scenes. Complete disregard of realistic accuracy, for the benefit of storytelling.
While they threw away perspective to focus on telling a story, I am throwing away historic costuming accuracy to make space for a display of character and personality. Besides, the land I will be writing in will be out of this world, it would be foolish to assume fashion would follow the same path.
Regardless, I wanted a bit more inspiration for outfits and different shapes of dresses. When scrolling through TikTok, I saw a few stunning dresses from the V&A Marie Antoinette Exhibit and like the sheep that I am, got myself a ticket
art girl mentioned??
The first thing that struck me when I walked in were the paintings. Firstly because I had seen close up of Marie Antoinette’s hand holding that flower all over Pinterest—without ever knowing it was her— and secondly because I took the time to read the label and saw the name of the artist.
Elisabeth Louise Vigée le Brun.
A woman.
Not just a woman but apparently Marie Antoinette’s favourite painter. After getting home I looked up some more of her work. I must say, she is very cool, I truly love the softness of her painting.
But back to my point. I was surprised to see the name of a woman. Then I felt anger at my surprise.
It made me realise that we are fighting so hard to keep our rights nowadays, to deconstruct the patriarchy, to move away from “the old ways”, that we seem to forget our gender being rendered entirely powerless was rather recent. The mindset that “It has always been like this and it should stay like this.” has been pushed onto us so hard that we forget it was not always like this. This doesn’t mean that the 18th century was a paradise of freedom for women, it definitely was not. However, women in nobility still could get their art recognised without hiding behind a masculine pen name.
It hurt when I understood that patriarchy had brainwashed us so much to be grateful for the rights we obtained that it seems unfathomable to us that women might have had anything before the right to vote. They told us we are the lucky ones, we achieved equality and got all the things that did not exist before. But we didn’t. They tossed one more bone at us and pointed at the previous generations—who already had a few things in their plate— saying ‘Look we are giving you all this while they had nothing.”
I was surprised that a woman had been able to be a renowned painter in the 18th century, and I hated it. I should not have been surprised.
After the feminine rage settled however, I felt really proud of Elisabeth. Sure, she came from the nobility and had all the tools to become an artist. But still. I was happy to see the portrait of a woman painted by a woman, portrait of which snippets are shared across a platform mainly occupied by women to make mood boards and aesthetics. It is a nice moment of togetherness.
let them eat cake
I debated longly with myself on whether I should mention Marie Antoinette’s role in the revolution or not. I did not dive deep enough in history books to accurately claim how innocent or responsible she was for the crisis that France faced.
But I will say this.
Was the beheading fair? No. A death sentence can never be fair. I firmly believe some crimes are indeed punishable by death, but I do not trust humans to responsibly handle a guillotine. An angry mob will lash out at the first thing that comes their way, regardless of how much sense it makes. In addition, past (and present) rulers have proven many times that we cannot trust our Justice System to use such a tool fairly. I will say though that it definitely was efficient. French people are known for their protests, and a lot of people make fun, but it does get the job done.
Was her sexualisation depicted across the press okay? Also no. There was some pornographic imagery of Marie Antoinette displayed in the exhibit. Propaganda created in preparation of the Revolution as a means to further discredit and degrade the current monarchs. This irked me. I am all for exposing a ruler’s mishaps, faults, and crimes. Their intimate privacy however? I could never condone. It still is something that confuses me, whenever society wants to degrade a woman, they will expose her sexuality. And somehow it works? People will judge and shame. Why even care? Her political crime would be what mattered, whatever she did with or without her husband was none of my, your, nor their business. Unfortunately, that was another moment of togetherness, yet not a nice one.
To stay true to my words, I won’t share pictures from that part of the exhibit.
shapes and colours
Now in no way am I fashion expert. I cannot sew, knit, crochet, or any of those things. I did try embroidery once, but like my many whims, I left it to the side and haven’t touched it since. Did not even finish the piece I was doing. Probably should go back to it when my job gives me time to relax. Either way.
Despite my lack of knowledge, I still found myself profoundly impressed by the shape of some of the dresses. The fabrics were mixed in ways I had not thought of before, and a few of them had me wonder what the patron might have looked like.
For what I wanted from this exhibit, this was perfect.
When I was writing the main character of my next book, I envisioned a scene where she is overly excited about a ball and puts on the biggest shiniest dress she can find. She’s a huge romantic who firmly believes in Prince Charming and a happy ending—whether this works out for her I cannot disclose— therefore attending a ball in a pretty dress is part of the recipe. I thought I had done a decent job and that the dress was extravagant enough.
Well after seeing the dresses that La Reine de France used to wear I can safely say I am nowhere near as bold as I thought I was. Quite a humbling, but fascinating, experience.
Funnily enough, it did occur to me that I would love wearing this type of dress. Partly because I find them stunning, of course, but mostly because I am certain they do wonders for personal space. No one could get too close since they would be stopped by the immensity of the skirt. A dream come true.
During my promenade around the different displays I also discovered some concepts that I wish we brought back to current fashion.
I am aware that hoodies and coats accompanied with a hood are still a thing. However look at the specific shape of that vest! It blends in with the actual dress in a way that makes you wonder if it is all just one piece and/or where the coat begins and the dress ends. I want clothing that confuses people. It makes it more fun. People are staring at you? Maybe your outfit I stunning, or it could be that they are trying to comprehend how something straight out of a cartoon still holds in real life. How fun would that be?
Granted, maybe not as fun as capes?! Until the exhibit, I had completely forgotten that this form of cape woven into the dress was even a thing. But God how I love it! The flair, the drama, the elegance of it. I truly wish capes would make a comeback. Now I do see how in modern society, they might be inconvenient.
Automatic doors on public transports would turn capes into death traps. But still.
an unexpected nostalgia
If there was one thing I did not expect when going to an exhibit about la Reine de France, it was to reminisce over my childhood and feel emotional.
There was something that my mom used to say to me when I was younger.
“La mode est un cercle.”
Fashion is a circle. Now I am not saying that I ever doubted that statement to be true. It seemed logical to me. I simply did not expect it to be relevant through centuries.
But when I saw leopard prints, glitter sewn into fabrics, bow-shaped and heart-shaped jewellery covered in diamonds, it hit me. If Marie Antoinette had been alive today she would have been my godmother. My godmother with her extravagant coats of leopard print, her pink car, her hello kitty rhinestone keychains, her flashy died hair and glittery dresses.
I went to see a historical figure who lived centuries ago, and found the reflection of a person dear to my heart. It made me emotional. We look at figures of the past like paintings frozen in time, and it is so easy to forget they were people.
The label of one of Marie-Antoinette’s dresses claimed that when the Queen wore this garment in the gardens she was most likely shining like the sun. It is silly but I felt that. Because I know so many girls, young women, women, elderly women, who given her wealth would still do the exact same thing. We too would get excited at seeing all of the glitter sparkle under the sun, and probably do a little twirl. It’s silly, it’s simple, but it’s human.
It is something we all share. Little moments of happiness over simple things. Never truly understanding how far back that feeling has resonated in people before us.
And that is beautiful.
I went to the V&A Marie Antoinette Exhibit, and it made me emotional.
want these landing in your inbox before anyone else sees them?
subscribing to the newsletter on substack gets you every article 3 days early,
and you can choose to only hear about book updates if that's more your thing.
there's also a paid tier if you ever feel like supporting the work directly — but it doesn't unlock anything extra, the free version gets you everything. purely a "buy me a coffee" option, no pressure.