{"id":107931,"date":"2025-10-23T13:53:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T13:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=107931"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:53:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T13:53:50","slug":"marie-antoinette-style-grazia-usa-fall-winter-2025","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/marie-antoinette-style-grazia-usa-fall-winter-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Marie Antoinette Shaped Desire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Elisabeth Vig\u00e9e-Lebrun\u2019s Marie Antoinette with a Rose, 1783; Alba Rohrwacher in Dior haute couture, 2025.
Photo: Courtesy of Dior<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cS<\/span>he is the original influencer,\u201d says Dr. Sarah Grant, curator of Marie Antoinette Style <\/i><\/a>at London\u2019s Victoria & Albert Museum. The exhibit, on view through March 22, traces how the French queen\u2019s daring wardrobe choices continue to resonate on runways today. In the late 18th century, Marie Antoinette and her stylist avant la lettre, Rose Bertin, laid the foundation for the modern fashion industry by transforming Versailles court dress from a marker of social status into an expression of personal style. They gave women freedom of movement by reducing the grand habit <\/i>with its unwieldy 10- to 12-foot-wide panniers to a more manageable size and reimagining the chemise as an outdoor-ready dress featuring puffed sleeves and a ruffled collar.<\/p>\n

Bertin found her entr\u00e9e to Parisian fashion as a Rue Saint-Honor\u00e9 marchande des modes, <\/i>selling ribbons, lace, and other ornaments. In 1774, she landed her big break designing Marie Antoinette\u2019s coronation robes and soon became the queen\u2019s chief image architect. \u201cMuch like modern photo shoots, Marie Antoinette and Rose Bertin collaborated closely to style the queen for her portrait sittings,\u201d says Grant. Their most famous project was \u00c9lisabeth Vig\u00e9e Le Brun\u2019s twinned portraits, shown at the Salon of 1783. The first, Marie Antoinette in a Chemise Dress<\/i>, revealed the queen at the Petit Trianon in a sheer white muslin gown and straw hat, scandalizing Paris with its casual intimacy. It was quickly replaced by Marie Antoinette with a Rose<\/i>, depicting her in a blue silk robe \u00e0 la polonaise <\/i>that featured smaller side hoops and a looser fit making for a comfortable garment without sacrificing decorum.<\/p>\n

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Elisabeth Vig\u00e9e-Lebrun\u2019s twinned portraits, Marie Antoinette with a Rose<\/em> and Marie Antoinette in a Chemise Dress,<\/em> 1783<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marie Antoinette\u2019s image didn\u2019t just hang in gilded frames: It circulated, multiplied, and sold. Much like today\u2019s content creators, she curated and shared her image widely. Bertin styled herself the \u201cQueen\u2019s Fashion Merchant\u201d and often boasted of her \u201clatest collaborations with Her Majesty.\u201d With the queen\u2019s blessing, she sold copies of gowns that had debuted at Versailles, though only after a two-week embargo. Life-size poup\u00e9es de mode <\/i>mannequins, modeled on the queen and dressed in replicas of her outfits, were shipped from London to St. Petersburg, spreading French style across Europe. Marie Antoinette also appeared in fashion plates for the proto-magazines Le Cabinet des Modes <\/i>and Galerie des Modes<\/i>, reaching audiences far beyond the French court. She was no longer just a monarch; she had become a marketable brand.<\/p>\n

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Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood and N21, Fall\/Winter 2025
Photo: Courtesy of Vivienne Westwood and N21<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From Jeanne Lanvin\u2019s robe de style <\/i>and Christian Dior\u2019s New Look to the theatrical interpretations of Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, and Karl Lagerfeld, Marie Antoinette\u2019s style has returned to the runway repeatedly. Even now, more than two hundred years after the queen\u2019s untimely demise in 1793, it makes a striking statement on the Fall\/Winter 2025 catwalks. \u201cMarie Antoinette invented a way of experiencing fashion that has remained unchanged over the centuries, opening the doors to today\u2019s models, celebrities, and it-girls,\u201d says N21 designer Alessandro Dell\u2019Acqua, whose collection drew inspiration from the queen via Sofia Coppola\u2019s 2006 biopic starring Kirsten Dunst as a Manolo-loving debutante. Sleek pencil skirts with oversized waist bows and a \u201cswollen and disheveled\u201d silhouette offered a modern take on 18th-century panniers and draperies.<\/p>\n

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Chlo\u00e9 and Dilara Findikoglu, Fall\/Winter 2025
Photo: Victor Virgile\/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images, Courtesy of Dilara Findikoglu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAt its heart, Marie Antoinette\u2019s appeal is about longing for fantasy,\u201d says vintage style influencer Yulia Fomenko<\/a>, who has never met a pannier she didn\u2019t love. Clearly, she\u2019s not alone in her desire: \u201cMarie Antoinette\u2019s signature looks, including corset tops, bubble and dropwaist skirts, bows, ribbons, and lace, are key elements in some of today\u2019s most searched aesthetics,\u201d says Sagal Mohammed, editorial lead for Google Shopping, noting that \u201cwhite boho chic dress,\u201d recently hit an all-time high. Search interest for waist-extending shapes tells a similar story: \u201ccrinoline\u201d doubled and \u201crococo dress\u201d jumped 170 percent in the past month.<\/p>\n

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Blumarine and Colleen Allen, Fall\/Winter 2025
Photo: Courtesy of Blumarine and Colleen Allen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the Fall\/Winter 2025 runways, hybrids fuse the structured pannier with flowing boho silhouettes in white lace and mesh. Meruert Tolegen offers a crinoline pleated pannier dress, while David Koma\u2019s naked pannier dress for Blumarine merges sculptural structure with soft, flowing lines to create a striking, modern silhouette he calls \u201ca symbol of timeless volume and presence.\u201d This season, designers are also exploring how architectural shapes can be adapted. Colleen Allen\u2019s cotton-velvet coats feature removable tulle inserts at the hips, \u201ccreating a striking silhouette while remaining effortless to wear,\u201d she says. Louis Vuitton proposes double hip-slung fanny packs, while Ottolinger offers tie-on hip pads.<\/p>\n

Stylist Ana Tess highlights the DIY potential, recommending padded bike shorts, hip pads, or ruffled bloomers from Amazon to \u201cpump up the volume\u201d of a dress. She even bought a bean-shaped butt pillow from Zoe Gustavia Anna Whalen to add curvature under jackets. \u201cI actually need to order a second one so I can tie them on both hips,\u201d she says, underscoring that this iteration of Marie Antoinette mania is as playful as it is personal\u2014an invitation to dream, just as the queen of fashion intended.<\/p>\n

Read\u00a0GRAZIA USA<\/em>\u2019s Fall\/Winter Issue<\/a> featuring cover star Havana Rose Liu<\/a>:<\/strong><\/h4>\n