Marie Antoinette of Austria, the Queen consort of France and Navarre who died guillotined at the start of the French Revolution, she was like a current celebrity among the European courts. Your personal hairdresser for example invented a star hairstyle for her known as pouf, which consisted of a towering wig adorned with everything type of artifacts. This invention would triumph throughout the decade from 1780. Here we show you why. said queen would be remembered as one of the most transgressive in the world of fashion and art.

18th century influencer

Marie Antoinette exercised with great influence on the fashion of the eighteenth century to the point of transferring it from Versailles to the different Courts European. It was a time of luxury and all kinds of extravagance. Towering hairstyles full of feathers and plumes, powdered with vertigo… the poor women could not find carriages long enough high enough to get into, and either had to go on their knees, or with their heads bowed, and even outside the window so as not to spoil them (what a pity that in those days there were no relaxing muscle, because surely more than one would need).

Now, hairy matters aside, in the eighteenth century, The true ambition of every lady was to be able to impress with her dress at court, and in this Marie Antoinette had a reputation as an expert.

The splendor and etiquette of Versailles did not allow Under no circumstances should women use the dress more than once. The taste for feminine suits translated into the turn of the skirts outrageously wide supported by an inner frame, the infant guard, a distinctive icon of Spanish fashion that, Originally designed to hide pregnancies, it reappeared. in the first half of the 18th century in a French modality, the panier.

The bag It could reach dimensions of up to five meters in diameter, something that did not stop causing impediments, such as not being able to sit two ladies in the same carriage, or not going through certain doors. East unlike the footguard, the bag moved the volume of the skirts to the hips, thus highlighting the the woman's silhouette, to which, of course, the corset also contributed, that raised the bust and narrowed the waist.

Now if there was a top dress and that triumphed. in court fashion around the 1740s, that was the so-called French dress, an elaborate design consisting of three parts, a gown, open at the front and ending in a tail, a skirt, less exaggerated than the previous dresses, thus allowing increased mobility, and a triangular top piece that covered the torso. said dress it would remain fashionable during his early years at Versailles, and Marie Antoinette would wear it with unmistakable taste.

And my fan?

As important as the dress were the accessories in the appearance of a lady. In any ceremony they should cover their arms and hands with gloves, as long as they were sleeveless. Only in summer were they allowed to wear mittens, a type of glove that left half the fingers exposed.

Although truly If there was a star accessory for a lady, it was the fan, since with it they were able to cover up the art of dissimulation, developing a gestural language that served to communicate at the time of seduction giving life to licentious customs of Versailles. Fans of the Rococo eras and neoclassicism have passed by the hands of our experts, and the antiques department is proud to have sold deeply worked copies.

These ended up being authentic works of art. On paper or silk and held by rods of ivory, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl or deeply carved and gilded precious woods, great painters captured refined scenes, while goldsmiths were in charge of embroidering them with gold and silver threads. , or embed precious stones.

Between their scandalous clothes and fans, Marie Antoinette always finished being the center of attention at all parties, however, over time, perhaps tired of so many outings, and disenchanted with the politics and life of the court, she ran in search of other pleasures, such as country ones. His withdrawal from Petit Trianon was the ultimate illustration of that simple life: echoing the simplicity and dressing in an unthinkable way until years ago he dressed for example with the suit shepherdess from the Alps, short and light dresses and straw hats with tape.

Even so, the fan didn't leave him, that's for sure. sticking to the times he wanted to live. The paintings were reduced to small vignettes, a central and two sides with historical scenes that alluded to the present of the moment, such as battle commemorations, princely weddings or peculiar motifs such as the balloon ascension in 1783.

The mounts were also simpler with rods separated from each other. (skeleton type), in ivory, bone and steel, and with a smaller size with sequin embellishments on lawn or chiffon having some small glasses or magnifying glasses on the ballot.

The truth of all this is that Marie Antoinette could go out without her scented powder, without her gloves, without her bag, without her wig, but never ever WITHOUT YOUR FAN.